Shadows: Part 1
by gamewriter2014
Summary: After a "coincidental" meeting with the Star Fox team; Samus Aran, Anthony Higgs, and Madeline Bergman must work with them in order to end a threat both are familiar with; the Aparoids and Metroids. Yet it seems there are many things unknown between the new group including who is the person in the shadows that seems to follow them that causes some distrust.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Messaged Meetings

Samus sat down relived after a long day of hunting. Earlier she had been asked to come to new colony to fend off the Space Pirate problem there which all they got was two waves of Space Pirates and ten waves of kids wanting a demonstration of how ice missiles worked in her suit's arm cannon. At first the kids were just curious and Samus didn't mind it but then they started to ask to watch it over and over again which would have depleted her missile supply. Her AI, Adam, wasn't much help on it either, all he did was talk about how she could've went and amuse them with a showcase of plasma beams. Things were so different than they were a few months back for Samus.

Then she was just the bounty hunter that saved the galaxy from pirate and metroid invasions and no one seemed to care almost. Now all Samus ever got was constant attention from people like civilians to even soldiers just because she and her newfound AI Adam together stopped the plans of the Sa-X (the X parasite version of Samus) from spreading throughout the different Galactic Federation regions. Although in the process there was no choice but to destroy the research facility to keep that from happening which did anger the Federation's Chairmen until Samus' old friend, Anthony Higgs, helped prove the good reasons why it should have been destroyed in the first place.

"Is there something you want to say, lady?" Adam said to her through her helmet's com.

"Not right now, I was just thinking about things that have happened" Samus gave as her reply.

Samus paused for a moment to think why he would pop the question right then.

"Wait, why do you ask?"

The AI Adam seemed to think too before speaking.

"Well you seem to be lost in space like you've been ever since the X parasite incident ended and I would assume you would have something to say after a long day like yours"

Samus sat there thinking if it was wise to talk about her thoughts to an AI version of her old commander even though she never really did address ideas too often. She thought of something to say just to please him but nothing came to mind that wasn't related to the real Adam.

"Well, haven't you thought about why there are many enemies that always try to copy me and try to spread through the galaxy? There was Phazon with Dark Samus that was once Metroid Prime and then the X parasite everyone's talking about with Sa-X who wasn't as successful as Dark Samus though"

Adam went silent and left Samus in wait. It was possibly two minutes until he finally could find something to say.

"Yes it seems they were both too familiar in styles of invasion I'm afraid. I can't seem to find if they were related at all in any case"

Now Samus thought about it too but wasn't far in thought when Adam added in.

"What I'll like to tell you, lady, is that Anthony seems to have requested to meet you if you have the time tomorrow evening at Daiban"

Samus repeated what he said in her head. Anthony wanted to see her? They haven't talked in years so it would have made sense why he would want to talk; just why he wanted to meet her made no sense.

"Send a message back to him saying I'll be on my way as soon as I can and that he can send a message to the specific point to meet at."

"Got that, I'm sending it now"

Samus got up from her seat knowing that rest would have to wait until later. Something must have been on Anthony's mind for him to ask her to meet him.

Fox and Slippy were in the middle of playing one of Slippy's video games in two separate hand held devices in "multiplayer mode" with Krystal and Falco on the side cheering them both on.

"Come on Fox, you can't lose to Slippy like this! He's got to be one of the easiest people to beat in all of Lylat!" Falco said insulting Slippy like his usual.

"Don't worry Slippy, Falco forgets that you've practiced this game all day yesterday just for this match!" Krystal whispered to Slippy cheering him a bit.

"Hey I thought you in for Fox!"

"It's just for today Falco"

"Riiigghht"

Fox just ignored the two and kept pressing the different buttons to fly the several-bit _"Arwing"_ trying to find where Slippy's ship was on the map and shoot him down to win. Slippy was in the middle of finding Fox's ship too hoping just this once to win something that didn't include a science fair in it. They both were, by coincidence, behind one another so when they both did a U-turn they ended up crashing into one another making them both lose the game.

"What was that? I thought it wasn't possible for two losers!"

"Aww… all that practicing for waste"

"Hey that was no fair! I call a rematch!"

They were so loud Peppy poked in the room to see what was going on only to see them all crowding around a video game.

"What are you guys doing in here? I thought you all said that you guys were helping out in the Hangar Bay!"

The four looked away from the game realizing that they had just been caught.

"Oh, uh, hi, Peppy, we didn't see you there before"

Peppy stood there arms crossed the way he did when he expected something from them.

"I know! The last person to the hangar has to verse Bill next round!" Falco screamed then ran out past Peppy followed by Krystal and Slippy.

"Fox, hold on for a second"

Fox stopped from following the others and stood still. What was it now? Another lecture about how he should be more like his father? He had those plenty enough.

"I was wondering where you were. Earlier someone sent a message straight to you and named himself Adam Malkovich. Apparently he claims he has information to you regarding James"

Fox didn't know anyone name Adam Malkovich. In fact he had no idea why someone had anything about his father, James.

"Uh, thanks Peppy. I'll go meet this person later or just message him if I have to"

He was about to leave when Peppy stopped him again.

"Fox you haven't been going around asking people about the incident on Venom have you?"

Fox stood there unsure on what to say. Normally if he said no to these things Peppy would go on and on about it until Fox's ears fell off.

"Not lately, I stopped after Sauria. There was no point after that." Fox said hoping for the best.

"Okay, go catch up with the others. I have work to do too." Peppy just said and walked away.

All Fox had to think was how easy that went. Instead of heading to the hangar where the others were, Fox went straight for his room to find exactly what this Adam wanted.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Meetings in a Capital

Samus walked around the Daiban city's park wearing something other than her suit knowing that it was probably better than walking around the Federation's capital in a Power Suit. At the same time Samus really did not want to drag attention while she was meeting her old friend so she chose to meet in traditional Federation green uniform color. It must've worked since no one knew that she was indeed Samus Aran walking around the capital. Samus wasn't the only one changing colors, the sky changed from the light blue color to a dark orange as the sun set behind all the glass buildings in the city. She had been looking for Anthony for an estimate of two and a quarter hours, but he was nowhere to be seen.

How could someone arrange a meeting and not appear at all? Samus stopped at the park's river bridge and leaned on the rails. She was lost in thought when a familiar voice came.

"Hey Princess, got you lost didn't I?"

Samus turned to see that indeed it was Anthony Higgs right behind her.

"Long time no see?"

"Pretty much"

She smiled at that. Anthony was the only person Samus knew that could make her laugh or smile. It always seemed he couldn't help himself but be silly at certain times. Samus remembered what she came for instead of smiles and went back to seriousness.

"So what was it you wanted to see me for Anthony?"

Anthony walked to the rails and leaned on them too looking at the building in the distance that you could compare to a dorsal fin on a dolphin.

"Remember the Bottle Ship? Remember how I had asked you how you felt about Commander Adam Malkovich? You had said you could remember that time when we were on an important mission to save innocent lives on the passenger ship when the thruster malfunctioned. Adam was about to give the order to detach that thruster even with his brother, Ian, on board when you were confident that you could reach him in time to save him"

"He didn't give me the order"

"Yes and he had the thrusters detached with his brother still onboard and met fate when it overloaded and exploded"

Samus recounted that day. Afterward she had been very upset with Adam and her old opinion changed about him. Not too long after she had left the Federation to become the Bounty Hunter she was that day.

"So what's the point of bringing this up? I have no clue what it is you want, Anthony"

"Samus, on the Bottle Ship you were that last to see Adam right?"

"Yeah, he went to Sector Zero where Metriods were being kept and did damage to the place so the emergency protocol would detach from the ship to self detonate, with him in it"

Anthony could see Samus felt sorrier than ever about Adam. The same was for him when he heard about it and the fact he was the only survivor of Platoon Seven. He wondered if it was the right time to tell Samus.

"So princess, there's something I was meaning to tell you last time we saw each other about that"

"What do you mean?"

"When I was trying to stop the Bottle Ship from moving I was able to see that as Sector Zero was ejecting and so was an emergency pod that was installed in case anyone was trapped inside that sector"

"Are you sure about that Anthony? It was years back"

"Not as long as you try to make it sound like. Ever since we returned after that mission I have been tracking it with the help Madeline Bergman. Remember her? She was willing to help after losing Melissa"

"I remember, she was very depressed after that whole business"

"Indeed, Madeline even said she was willing to help so that way no one else had to lose their Melissa"

Samus looked out to the buildings and thought about it. It could be possible he could've escaped since she couldn't see Sector Zero self detonate where she had been. If it was true, she would want to see him again and thank him for what he did; for her and the Federation. Then she finalized that she had to know where he was.

"Where is it you found him at?"

Anthony pulled out a little device out of his pocket and had it turn on a little hologram of a solar system.

"Here, a whole new galaxy, and a whole new system. The first one I've seen with a dwarf star though. If what Madeline found was right he'll be on this planet" he pointed to a green and blue planet that was similar to the human home planet, Earth.

"There?"

"There, I was planning on heading out there, without Federation tracking of course so Madeline will tag along and make sure we aren't followed"

"Let me get us there, I've got a new gunship faster than my last one that should get us there. Plus the Federation knows I travel planet-to-planet which means we won't have too much of a problem. Just mind my AI, Adam. I'll have to explain to him about this"

"Huh, missed him so much you replaced him with an AI with the same mind. That might be an interesting story to tell the real one"

Samus just ignored him. All there was to think about was the possibility of Adam being out there in an unknown galaxy. Would it be possible he was truly there?

Fox wandered around Corneria City with Krystal in tow for his rendezvous point with this Adam. He couldn't be sure that this guy would be friendly so he brought Krystal along (just because she was telepathic) to make sure he had no murderous thoughts going on in his head. They both had their Blasters prepped in case he was dangerous and Krystal convinced Fox to bring a couple of bandages for a weird reason.

"Are you sure about this Fox? You know how Peppy will be when he finds out" Krystal whispered to see if Fox would turn back.

"I know Krystal, it's just this guy keeps sending requests to meet me, even when we're all asleep! It's just gotten to the annoying level where I have to see what he wants from me"

Krystal sighed and let her eyes wander around the city. There was no way to change his mind now that this guy kept bothering him. Maybe she shouldn't worry, maybe if this Adam knew something about Fox's dad he could know why Cerinia was destroyed years ago. Just like Fox, she stopped searching for answers after Sauria, yet now her search started again with this unknown Adam. Fox tugged on her sleeve when she was almost ready to walk into a hole in the ground she didn't see when she zoned out.

"Careful Krystal, you don't want to fall down a hole around here"

Krystal looked around seeing why; while she was too busy thinking they had walked to the less occupied part of the city where pretty much no one would enjoy visiting. And all the holes were from parts of the cement crumbling away and showed the sewers below. Krystal was disgusted and preferred to stay near Fox.

"So where is it we are seeing this guy exactly? He doesn't want to meet you in the sewer does he?"

"Fortunately not there, instead a bar around that corner where a lot of gangs hang out"

"Uh, I think I'll take the sewer any day"

Fox had to agree with her on that part, the only person they knew who wouldn't mind the bar at all would be Falco, but he was once part of a gang so of course. When they walked round the corner they saw that the only nice thing that was on that street was in fact the only occupied building, the bar. They both were unsure about entering the building but knew this was the only way to meet Adam. By fortune it was only one group there besides the two inside the place bothering the bar tender until she was nearly on her last nerve. It must've been relief to her that there were different people that seemed much nicer than the group before.

"Good day, what can I do for you?' she said trying to smile to them.

Krystal looked at the bar tender; it was obvious she wasn't enjoying her job or the crowd. It was a guess she was purposely keeping the group of men drunk for that.

"Is there an Adam Malkovich here?"

"You mean the hood Adam? Strange guy I must say, ever since he came 'round there's been less of a crowd to handle," she looked as though she was thankful on that part, "Yeah he's over in that corner if you're looking for him" she pointed to a dark corner where a hooded figure sat rolling an odd round coin on the table.

"Thank you"

Fox and Krystal left the lady to manage the drunken crowd while they headed to the hooded figure.

"So you're Adam Malkovich right?"

The figure looked taking off his hood scaring both Fox and Krystal with the fact that he wasn't anything from Lylat.

"Yes I am, you can sit down you know. I don't own the table"

The two hesitated unsure what a good decision around him was. They figured that they should sit down since he seemed to want them to.

"What is it you want? I hope you know you've been bugging us all day"

"Sorry about that, I was trying to get your attention the quickest way possible. And now that you're here I'll start under one condition."

"What?"

"I don't exist to anyone else besides you two. I wouldn't want the idea of my existence disturbing your life styles."

"Uh okay"

Adam flipped his coin in the air and caught it again almost for show.

"This coin here is one of the few things I have left from where I come from, and it's not currency. It used to be part of a medal I had earned as a Commander of Platoon Seven part of the Galactic Federation far from where your Lylat is. The thing is the last time I was there my platoon and I went to find survivors aboard an illegal research facility. What had happened was the scientists were attempting to create bio-weapons from remains of the Federation's threats like Space Pirates, Zebesians, and metriods."

"Excuse me, but what exactly are metriods?"

"Anyone's nightmare, they look like they have jellyfish heads and have two small claws plus two larger ones underneath. Don't think they're friendly for one second, the reason why they're a threat is because they attach to any living source and drain all life energy away leaving their victim dead but them stronger. For a long time we were able to destroy them with normal ice weapons since it was their only weakness, but at that research facility the scientists removed their ice weakness making them almost invincible to our weapons. It was luck that all the metriods were still in a place called Sector Zero unmarked on the facility's map. I knew there was an emergency system installed into the sector so that if a certain amount of damage was done it would detach and explode away from the facility."

"So you made those metriods go crazy and do damage to the place?"

"No, I went inside to do so"

"Wait if you were inside how are you still here?

"Won't your platoon have tried to stop you?"

Adam looked at the medal for a bit and remembered one person who would've sounded like them.

My platoon was killed off one-by-one by someone hired to kill anyone who knew the purpose of the research facility. I was the only one remaining along with one old member who had left before, and yes, she didn't agree with me going in there"

"Who is 'she'?"

"Samus, she used to be part of the platoon. After one of the missions that I commanded she had left and became a Bounty Hunter, a good one at that. It was Samus that was hired in the first place to destroy the metriods and she was non-stop wanting to go in and destroy the metriods herself"

"Not to bother you with so many questions, but why did Samus want to exterminate them so badly?"

Adam paused and thought if the two really needed to know about Samus. He was already talking about her so there was no choice.

"Back when Samus was a little girl the colony her family was living on was attacked by Space Pirates and only she survived. She was taken up by the Chozo who many years later were attacked by Space Pirates and their home planet was used to perform tests on the metroid for their use. That was one of the main reasons why she had been chosen to do the job"

Krystal felt sympathy for this Samus. They both were only survivors to their destroyed homes.

"Okay so you have told us one of the oddest stories I've heard, now what's the real point here?" Fox said not understanding the point.

"Let me tell you exactly then"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: Encounter

Adam proceeded to walk into the sector as the secondary lock closed and entered the bright sector. This sector was smaller than the others but had large rows of glass tubes containing metriods inside them that seemed calm with no bother or sign of destruction in sight. He knew what he had to do; he had to do enough damage to the place to engage the security protocol to destroy all the metriods. He made sure that his Freeze Gun was charged and fired at one of the tubes turning the insides into ice and angering the metriod contained inside it. The whole place started to shake along with a warning that Sector Zero was detaching.

All seemed fine until the frozen metroid let out a high-pitched scream piercing Adam's ears and broke through its frozen prison. Adam held his gun ready at the metriod to prevent it from escaping. The metroid ignored him and continued to fly away to an emergency shuttle door. Somehow it managed to know how to open it.

"Great, they also added intelligence to them" Adam whispered to himself.

He wasted no time and chased after it into the shuttle. He took a few shots at it hoping it would at least stun it but nothing happened. The metroid finally found him a threat and released an even higher high-pitched scream and activated the doors to close. Adam's ears couldn't take the pain from the metroid and fell to his knees from the constant ringing. Immediately the shuttle made a sudden and quick jolt throwing Adam to the wall knocking him out and damaging the metroid.

Adam could hear footsteps approaching closer and closer but he couldn't figure whose it was that was coming. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't even open his eyes or move. Whoever it was they were trying to say something but it was a little fuzzy at the start.

"I said are you okay? Hello?" someone said.

There was a long silence as if this person was thinking for a moment then the sound of fading footsteps showing they were walking away. Adam decided to try to make himself move before that person came back around since he could've been an enemy mistaking him for someone else. He ached a little, but ignored it and managed to support himself up on something. Slowly he had vision regained and could see that what he was using part of what was left of the door that had been broken off. There was certainly a lot of damage done around him, and a distinct rip on the ceiling above.

The rip seemed like an animal was trying to get in desperately, or out. Was it the Metriod? It could have been the person from earlier since he never did see who it was. The confusing fact was that there was a thick metal plating that even a metriod couldn't penetrate, so how could it have been the metriod? There was no use on staying there forever to find out since whatever it was could come back any moment to finish the job.

Adam picked up his gun, which was left on the ground, and climbed through the destroyed doorway to see that in fact the shuttle crashed into a forested area. There was no where that seemed familiar like this place, there wasn't even any type of bird or animal he knew in this place; it was all strange land to him.

"Huh, must be a new colony" he assumed looking around once again just to remember if he did see this place before.

Adam only traveled about two inches when someone screamed, "Watch out!" and did the "classic" save by jumping wherever they came from and grabbing him to get him out of the way. They both recovered the landing just in time to see an odd, purple, bug-like thing crash into the already damaged shuttle getting it's sharp front legs stuck in the thick metal. Adam turned to see who exactly just saved him and nearly fainted to see that it was indeed a fox wearing sunglasses. The fox looked at him too and saw his shocked expression feeling a little awkward with the whole scene.

"Uh, hello then. Now if you understand me you'll want to run from that thing" the fox said pointing towards the odd thing trying to get its self free.

Adam backed away from the both unsure on who was the real enemy on this really strange situation.

"Who are you? And exactly how do you speak English?" Adam asked calmly and slowly backing away.

"Huh? What are you talking about? We're speaking Cornerian not this English. Listen I'm not joking you have to run from that freaking Apariod alright?"

Adam looked behind the fox and saw the earlier Metriod sneaking up behind him.

"Alright then, why don't you run from that Metriod also?"

The fox looked behind and was startled by the Metriod. The both had enemies to take care of before it got real nasty.

Fox and Krystal sat trying to understand the whole story so far.

"Do you see my point yet?" Adam asked the two waiting for further questions.

"Well sort of, but what happened afterward? And when was this again?" Fox had hoped that the mention of the Apariod was either made-up or years ago.

"What happened next I'll tell another time, and this was nearly two months ago"

"I'm sorry, but I think you must have this all wrong. The Apariods were destroyed one year ago by us; you must have counted wrong or something" Krystal implied.

"Sadly it has been two months. And I do know that you had destroyed them in the first place; that's why I wanted your attention, not some military company that'll do anything for money"

Adam got out of his seat and walked toward the door with his hood on. Krystal and Fox followed him out to see if there was something else he needed. At the counter the gang of monkeys watched them leave and started laughing.

"Ha! There's enough beer left for us!"

The crowd cheered at the knowledge the place was all theirs. The exhausted bartender looked at the crowd for more orders and screamed at the sight of what was a Metriod. The gang didn't even get to turn around when it attached its self on one of the tall monkeys. The rest tried to pull it off while all the poor lady could do was hide under the counter.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Departure Along With Trouble

Samus walked the docking bay enjoying the morning for the first time in awhile. It had been decided that she was going to get them to this new solar system in her new ship which was far different from her old Chozo one. Supposedly Anthony was going to act like he was just visiting her along with Madeline so there would be less suspicion about them leaving Federation space and abandoning work. Samus felt that a morning stroll would help make it look like she was just visiting the place. There were a few sights she actually enjoyed seeing: first of all the whole block the headquarters were on were all renovated to better withstand attacks if it were to happen, the streets were better kept than before and seemed to be five-star luxury streets, training grounds were also renovated to have more people on there, and organization on docking were better, surprisingly.

She walked along finally reaching her gunship she had painted orange just to be at least a little like the last one. Instead of Anthony waiting there an older gentleman was in an army commander uniform inspecting the gunship.

"Is there something I can do for you?" Samus asked getting his attention.

"Hm? Oh Samus there you are! The years have passed, no?"

Samus looked at him in confusion then remembered; he used to be commander of the fifth platoon that trained with hers when she was there.

"Commander Frank? I barely recognized you from age!"

He laughed for a little bit since he got that often.

"A lot of people say that. Anyway, how have you been doing ever since Adam passed?"

She didn't know what response to give to him. Samus was afraid to give away her ideas.

"Oh I see, not feeling like talking about it? I understand it no worry. Sorry to pain you but recently with all the new things going on I had been moved to Adam's old office. When I was settling down I had found something of his which was strange since I thought they long cleared the space. I wasn't wanting to throw it out so when I heard you where around I thought you'd want it" He handed Samus a picture frame that had a image of young Samus and Ian posing while Adam himself was in the background showing no interest for the camera.

"He still had this?" Samus wondered almost forgetting herself.

"Yes, and I trust you'll take care of it"

Samus nodded and studied it further. Anthony walked in with a red-haired woman only just noticing the commander in front of him.

"Commander Frank! Nice to see you haven't changed… too much" Anthony said in his usual happy mood.

"Morning Higgs, it's been a long time since I've seen the both of you together. Who's the woman?"

The woman stepped out and introduced herself for Anthony.

"I'm Madeline Bergman, I'm a friend"

"Wait one second, Madeline Bergman who was the research director on the Bottle Ship?"

"Yes, but I'm trying to erase that record"

"Good then, well I'll leave you guys alone to chat, so long then!"

He saluted them then walked away. Samus looked at Anthony and Madeline to make sure they really were ready. Madeline was the first to step aboard calling for the other two to follow. Samus came with Anthony then made sure that one noticed.

"Sure you want to come along Madeline?" Samus checked after boarding.

Madeline nodded then started setting up her computer in her passenger seat. Samus placed Adam's picture by her feet and was ready to depart. Anthony sat himself down and decided his time on the trip was to inspect his weaponry for safety plus killing boredom. While Samus flew the ship out he checked all the ammunition for almost an hour until it finally became boring. Madeline was too busy checking nearby signals in case an alert was sent out and found something else.

"Hey there's something currently going on that set an alarm. Apparently someone's broke into an office with something and is on the run"

"Does it say who? If it isn't us we should be in the clear" Samus said checking ship status.

"According to the reports the ship's not from Federation space and someone claimed that they might've seen a fox getaway"

"Huh, what's next, sarcastic falcons flying a ship? Come on foxes don't have fingers they could have been mistaken" Anthony laughed thinking it sounded silly.

Madeline went back into her search and frowned at her finding.

"Uh, Samus, I think we're going to get trouble. He's headed our way"

No sooner did something pass them along with Federation ships not far behind. Samus bit her tongue knowing that in fact there was trouble about them.

Slippy was in the maintenance room trying to find a problem that was starting to occur down there. He couldn't even see what or where it was. Suddenly he heard a loud racket from behind and assumed who it was.

"Falco I'm not falling for it! I mean it!"

The noise continued on with no pause.

"Falco I'm not joking!"

"Joking about what?" Falco said coming from the opposite direction of the noise.

"Wait if you're not making the noise then who is?"

Falco listened then shrugged.

"How am I supposed to know? Maybe if you check it out I bet you'll scream!"

Slippy wasn't going to take the insult this time and marched off to see what it was.

"Okay who's th-" Slippy stopped to see an jelly thing grabbing nearby pipes with its bloody claws.

Falco came to laugh at Slippy when he saw it too and stood in panic. The thing took notice and let out a scream trying to catch its new find. Falco and Slippy ran in fear until they reached the door and shut it panting. Peppy was standing there having no clue on what was wrong.

"What in the world are you two doing?"

Falco and Slippy looked up and tried to think of an excuse.

"Oh, uh, we were just shutting the door tight!"

"Because one of the gas pipes is leaking and you don't want to breathe that right?"

Peppy stared at them both, "It didn't look like there was a leak"

"Trust us!"

"There was!"

"Alright that's it what's behind there?" Peppy pushed the two aside and opened the door not seeing a problem.

"No wait don't go in there!" too late, Peppy went inside thinking they were just dramatizing things a bit too much and still didn't see anything.

"I don't see what's wrong at all"

Slippy and Falco looked and saw the jelly thing wasn't there.

"That's strange it was in here"

"What was in here?" Peppy looked around and still saw nothing.

Falco looked at one pipe and saw it was hiding there.

"Wait Peppy maybe you should come back out? Isn't there something you need to do?" Falco said alarming the jelly thing.

It let out another screech going after Falco. His reaction was to shut the door forgetting for a second Peppy was still inside. Slippy stood there terrified as dents were made into the door.

"Hey! This isn't funny you two!" Peppy yelled at them making them realize he was still in there.

"You get him!"

"No you should! You're the one who locked him out!"

Falco pouted and opened the door taking a lucky guess what he was grabbing. He pulled out the jelly claws by accident quickly throwing back in and finally getting Peppy. Slippy immediately shut the door with screeches behind it.

"You know what, I think I might've missed an hour of sleep" Peppy said before walking off.

"I think I did too" Falco agreed then took off.

Another dent was made on the door and Slippy just fainted right on the spot.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5: Forming of the True Enemy

Samus, Anthony, and Madeline were stuck in one serious situation for sure. What was assumed to be draw attention away from them was instead dragging it directly to them. There wasn't a reason to be silent, but the three were hoping for the "storm" to pass, or actually police. There was an incoming call and Samus signaled the other two to hide from the camera view.

"Samus Aran I believe, what is it you're out doing in this place?" A man, decorated in medals, said with the busy background behind.

"Sorry if I'm a bother; I was on my way to a job just like you seem to be" Samus calmly replied waiting for dismissal.

"This far out I would assume it's a colony problem unless I'm wrong"

"No you got it right"

The man did something out-of-view then came back and smiled.

"Well sorry to disrupt you, just be wary there's a criminal not too far"

"I take note" Samus shut the com off relaxed that the hard part was over.

"Let's continue on then. We wouldn't want to meet those guys again do we?" Madeline suggested getting comfortable in her seat again.

Samus agreed and sent her focus back to flying. Shortly there was an explosion nearby that was powerful enough to throw everyone out of their seats and the three weren't the only ones affected. Samus managed to get back in her seat to see that there was remains (barely) of one of the nearby Federation ships. Madeline saw too and looked back to her computer's screen that took fall damage.

"Oh no"

Anthony didn't take it as a good thing and went over to see what it was.

"Samus we need to get out now! Someone's using networks to cause devastating damage important computer systems apparently"

Samus looked out to see another explosion far off leading to the next.

"Keep eyes on it then!" she yelled setting the flight path as far as possible.

She was barely was able to get out in time before a fourth blast happened right next to them. Samus made sure they were within a safe area just for a time for breath from the whole scene. Madeline got back into the seat with relief from her worry.

"What was it that happened back there? Is this the whole Phazon incident all over once more?" Samus asked expecting her AI to answer. Nothing. Something was going on for sure; the AI Adam always answered, not be all silent like this.

"Hm, I really can't tell if it was or not. One thing for sure, it was planned the way it caught everyone off guard. How else?" Anthony answered not even noticing Samus' current concern.

"Just hope we aren't carrying a virus or something. Anyway we should be there about in an hour or close to it." Samus guessed deciding she would figure out what happened to her AI at a later time.

Anthony nodded then went to talking to Madeline. Samus tried to relax but worry ruined it. Was someone planning for them to come? If so, they needed to be ready for any surprise that came for them.

One day had passed for Fox since he met with Adam. Things became strange immediately after he got back. First of all; Falco and Slippy were getting along for the first time, Peppy was staying away from the area where the maintenance area was, and the bar Adam had been at had been attacked by what the same lady in there described as a flying jellyfish, it had to be a Metriod. It was odd for sure since Falco usually was teasing Slippy about his terrible combat skills and Peppy was always up and about, especially near the maintenance area checking on everything. Now all there was is Falco remaining near Slippy at all time being terrified of anything that came near and Peppy was staying near the bridge carrying a blaster with him. There was no point on asking what happened since there were things to do, besides, they could've just watched a horror movie and grown paranoid the time he was gone with Krystal.

That was all yesterday, Fox needed to focus for today. First thing they were supposed to do was to meet up with someone around the Sargasso region. In order to do so they had to bring their flagship, _Great Fox 2_ along for this one. If you wonder what happened to the last, we can just say that it may or may not have been crashed onto a base entrance. Fox stood, in the mean time, in front of a window viewing the meteoroid field outside thinking about everything going on. Krystal approached him doing the usual news giving thing they did around there.

"So Fox, I went ahead and checked the area for you. It looks like it's for sure near this area. Still can't see who it was"

"Good enough for me. By the way haven't you noticed how the others have been acting?"

"Of course, I just don't want to know since it might just be a spider issue or something"

"Huh, probably so. Well I'll be heading back for the bridge and see if Falco is still paranoid about everything"

Fox walked away to a hallway turn and made sure Krystal didn't follow. He was determined to see was it was about the maintenance room that made it avoidable. A few halls later he finally made it to the place only for nothing too exciting to happen like he expected. Fox sighed and continued on still not understanding what exactly was so scary. At the door he was able to see a few questionable dents and inside there were a couple of pipes that had, bite marks?

What was going on down here? There was nothing else beyond that point so Fox just turned around to leave. Maybe the whole story should be told by one of the three on what was down here. Instead there were obvious footsteps coming near that didn't sound too much like his. Fox took precaution and hid behind the door just in case it wasn't one of his friends, and he was right.

When he peeked out there were three unrecognizable shadows closing in. As they came near it sounded more of metal-on-metal and high heels than regular shoes. Who was it? Fox tried to peek out a little further only to nearly miss a shot from whoever it was, but that wasn't the last one. More came along and he knew that it was stupid to corner himself in a room so he had no choice but to fire back.

When there was a short pause Fox took advantage and hit someone for sure from sounds of someone in pain but he had no time to see who.

"Wait one second! Who the heck are you?" Fox yelled out as soon as he found a wall to hide behind.

The only reply was silence. Somehow he was going to figure out what was going on.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Misunderstanding

Madeline woke from her nap finding herself on the ground. She sat up noticing Samus asleep in her seat with Anthony also sleeping. "_So much for one hour to the place_" Madeline thought as she got up to see where they currently were. For some reason the view from the front window looked like an empty port of some sort and nothing else. She went up to the back of the ship to find her computer broken where she had previously placed it, "_Dang it, at least I thought ahead to bring the holograph projector along. Now where are we?_" Madeline thought as she brought out her holograph projector using it like her other computer.

Madeline scrolled up past lists and files she had trying to find her map representation wondering how many files she had on the device. After about quarter of an hour later she finally found it and tapped it's icon waiting for it to download the data from the ship wirelessly. Samus was waking up and noticed the light Madeline's holograph was emitting before noticing the outside herself. Samus turned her chair around to see Madeline's newly confused face as she kept making the thing rescan to reinsure something.

"What is it now? Did we accidently run into a carrier?" Samus asked waking Anthony in the process.

"Huh? What? What did I miss?" Anthony said too tired to notice the outside.

Madeline finished trying to recheck the location and ran over to show Samus.

"I'm not sure if this is a carrier, but it appears we are moving in an asteroid belt or something of that sort. If I'm right the indicator shows that we're inside a ship that could probably host the _Valhalla_ or _Olympus_, both at the same time possibly" she concluded pointing towards a shadow on the map.

"Well let's go find a friend that could help us out" Anthony said with a bit of sarcasm.

"Okay, I'll go ahead then. Follow if you want" Madeline headed out not even checking for safe pressures or air first.

"Wait, Madeline! He was being sarcastic!" Samus called out and followed grabbing Anthony with her out of his seat.

Madeline didn't stop to wait for them at all, instead she pressed on marveling the place around her. She almost lost the two behind when she passed through a door that was placed beneath a catwalk a high ways up. Madeline didn't stop to inspect and passed through with a quick glance continuing her walk for a long time having the two follow behind. Samus managed to catch up along with Anthony when they left the hangar far behind reaching an elevator.

"There must be someone on the bottom levels since maintenance is usually there" Madeline said looking at the different projected buttons finally pushing the very bottom one.

The other two could do nothing about it since she had already pressed the button causing the elevator to shut the doors and start moving downward. They were both thinking about if this was an abandoned ship or if this was a Federation trap to see where they were exactly heading. Madeline didn't seem to think on it too much as she pulled out her holograph projector again to find anything about the ship they were on. The elevator doors opened revealing the nearly exposed wiring showing it was indeed a maintenance area. Madeline walked out at a faster pace which made her high heels a little louder along with Samus and Anthony running along to stay with her. The place got darker and darker so eventually the projector served as a light.

Samus didn't like the silence surrounding them and felt glad that she had gone into her power suit mode back on the ship. She turned to see a small Metroid hovering by an open door as if it were watching something. By reflex, Samus took an open shot at it only realizing someone was poking their head around the door. The Metroid was shocked by her appearance and tried to fly away, she wasn't going to allow that to happen. Samus shot at it a little more missing every time in turn getting shot herself, but somehow it hurt more than it should have, what was going on?

Anthony pulled Samus out of the way from anymore shots since she was in too much shock to move. Madeline turned off her projector and tried to see if there were signs of who it was.

"Wait one second! Who the heck are you?" a voice yelled out almost tempting them to answer.

Madeline looked at them to see if they wanted to answer only to get indications to not.

"He doesn't know there was a Metroid nearby" Samus whispered to Anthony trying to explain herself.

"Why would that stupid thing try to attack?" Madeline yelled a little too loud to be heard by the other person.

"_What did you call me?_" the voice exclaimed sounding very offended.

Samus looked at the wall and saw the Metroid again, or at least it's reflection. This time it wasn't going to get away, so to insure that Samus jumped out in the open and fired at it hitting the nearby wall instead. She barely dodged a shot and quickly saw who it came from. Shocked at what it was, Samus went back to the cover wide-eyed before whispering to the rest what it was.

"I'm going delusional already, that last shot came from-" Samus paused and tried to think it over.

"What was it?" Madeline asked desperate to know.

"Two separate people, a fox and a rabbit" Samus finished getting the weird eye from the other two.

"What the world?" Anthony muttered to himself pretty much saying what they all were thinking.

Fox was very insulted by that point by what they had called him. "_Why would that stupid thing try to attack?_" he repeated in his head, "_I know why, because you just shot at me thanks a lot! And whoever you are, you certainly don't check before shooting for anything, or did they know?_" he wondered looking for anything that could show what they were up to. Shots were fired at the wall he was behind scorching it to near char. Fox wasn't going to play the hiding game any longer, risking himself by jumping out in the open to make more clear shots. Just when he was about to shoot someone else had missing the silhouette down the hall by only a little.

Fox hid back behind the wall and saw no other than Peppy join him.

"_Peppy_? What are you doing here?" Fox nearly yelled nearly surprised that he was actually down there.

"What? I was in the bridge when Rob said there was an odd ship docked with us, oh and Krystal said you were in trouble" Peppy said back not sure why Fox was so excited.

_Krystal,_ of _course_ she would've sensed it. He wasn't so sure it was a good thing as much as a bad thing in this case judging that he had no clue who and how many they were dealing with exactly. There was no time to think about that, Fox knew that there were at least three people onboard that could be possibly trying to get around them or worse, blow them all up. The very thought was frightening enough to force him to actually run from cover and head to where these people were. Of course Peppy tried to stop him but it was too late, Fox just ran into a death wish zone.

Fox ignored him quickly reaching where they were, well, were. No one was there strangely nearly causing a panic that they had gone around him most likely advancing to the bridge at that very moment. Not everyone was gone; someone tried to hit Fox behind completely missing causing whoever it was to fall forward from the force of the object they were using. Fox reacted fast enough to catch this person and pin them to the wall before they could get up and run. He looked over to see that indeed it was Slippy's tool box that was missing for some time that was thrown then looked back to see a panicking red haired human trying to get herself free.

Before the two could get anymore glimpses of each other another person came from behind holding a gun to Fox's head as a threat.

"I wouldn't mind if you let the lady go. It isn't how you treat one after all" the person demanded in a weird manner that was strangely less defensive than it should've sounded.

Fox didn't release her that moment, nor did he turn to the demander knowing his head could be blown off if he did. He remained still wondering where Peppy was not reacting to this situation currently going on. He looked at the woman who stopped her panic and stared up at the ceiling in fright. What was it?


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Adam's Appearance

Krystal stood by one of the bridge's computers worrying about Fox _and _Peppy down in maintenance. She had felt Fox in trouble and ran up there to tell the others when Peppy instructed her to stay there while he went to make sure. Even then she was still worried since it was about a couple years since Peppy had _actually_ handled a weapon for combat and there was a reason he no longer joined them in missions. Krystal paced back in forth deciding if it was wise to disobey Peppy's instruction to not go down there or if it was best to stay in the bridge. There was trouble just thinking from the noise that the game Falco and Slippy were playing was making like chip tone battle music to miniature explosions.

"Hey can you guys tone it down?" Krystal asked politely.

"Hold on just one sec! I'm about to finally win this game against Falco!"

"In your dreams Slippy, _I'm_ about to win!"

"Hey! That's not nice!"

Krystal became frustrated with the two so she went over and unplugged the cord that connected their two game devices together for the game. The two instantly noticed becoming frustrated themselves on why she had just ended their game.

"How can you both just sit there while Fox and Peppy could be in serious trouble right now?" Krystal pressured on them to make them feel shameful.

"Well sorry, they've got themselves, no need for us to worry. Now why don't you let us get back to the game?" Falco proceeded to try to plug the game again when Krystal snatched the device away from him.

"This isn't funny Falco! They're in trouble no doubt, neither one of them has come back yet!" Krystal snapped at Falco.

"What are we supposed to do? We were told to stay up here directly" Slippy responded for Falco.

"Follow a new directive then" a monotone voice said nearly giving everyone a heart attack.

Krystal recognized the voice from somewhere before, yet she couldn't remember where in time before Falco and Slippy started to point their blasters towards the main door. To her shock it was the Adam that had requested to meet Fox the day before standing there not even worried that he was in danger of being shot by two people. Adam stepped even closer to them with not even a single care or sign about the two with no idea who he was.

"I've figured you have more than just intruders that had snuck onboard your ship thanks to three of your friends. It seems that our worst fears have become true and are worse than ever" Adam said towards Krystal confusing the other two on how she knew him.

"How did you get onboard? I never saw you at all!" Krystal stepped forward talking to Adam in a way to show her suspicion to him.

"Now's not the time, to make things worse for me it appears Samus had accidentally ended up on board for some reason and managed to get herself in trouble"

"Samus?_ Her?_ Oh no, you mean she's in trouble wi-with Fox? Oh no, this isn't good" Krystal came to a sudden panic and almost ran out to find Fox.

"Hey wait who's this?" Falco looked at Adam unsure of what was going on, but his answer was delayed when Krystal ran out unable to control her emotions, "Okay, whoever you are, we can follow, but you're not goin' outta my sight"

Samus stayed within the shadows while Anthony and Madeline commenced their plan. Of course she was part of their little plan; it was just that her job was to get her A.I. to get into the ship's systems to find out what was going on with the crew's abandoning areas despite the fact Samus had no idea how to do that with her A.I. not responding. "_Come on Adam, where are you? We could use you now_" Samus thought searching for any signal that she wasn't needed. A shadow loomed nearby walking closer, no, running closer. Who was it?

It couldn't have been Madeline or Anthony since they both were in a different area than where this one was coming, was it the people she saw earlier? Samus made sure she was hidden well in the shadows and patiently waited like a predator waited for the prey. The footsteps grew louder and louder until it was to the level where Samus knew exactly to jump from the shadows. She quickly rocketed herself out of the shadows managing to grab whoever it was and pin them to the ground. There was no time for Samus to see who it was as someone shot her in the side to throw her off.

She quickly jumped back to her feet and pointed her arm cannon to this mystery shooter while there was a blue vixen standing there pointing her gun at Samus in return. "_Is this some sort of zoo?_" Samus wondered to herself watching as the vixen looked at her like she was checking something.

"Is that her?" the vixen whispered confusing Samus.

"Who?" the confused Samus asked still not dropping her guard.

The vixen didn't answer, instead she just stood there silently until a blue falcon ran up behind her not even seeing Samus.

"Krystal what are you thinking? At least explain to us who that guy was and tell who that Samus person was you two apparently knew. Wait one second, does Fox know about this?" the falcon demanded finally seeing Samus in front of him, "Oh great, more unknown people onboard."

"Wait Falco that's her," Krystal looked over to Samus, "what did you do to Peppy and Fox?"

Samus stood there trying to figure out everything they were saying. How did they know her name? Maybe that guy this "Falco" mentioned knew exactly.

"Lead me to your other guest first" Samus demanded trying to sound serious.

"Answer us first all ready will ya? Where's our two friends?" Falco replied back.

"I see then" Krystal whispered then ran past Samus.

"Hey! Seriously, what's goin' on?!" Falco yelled out then turned toward Samus, "Great, well if you really want to meet that guy then wait here will ya?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8: Realization

Fox remained frozen still holding the woman against the wall with the gun still on his head. What was he supposed to do? He couldn't stand there forever; he'd only get himself shot for taking so long to reply. Fox's choice had to come soon before the demander's patience withered away.

"Well do you want to respect her or what?" the demander asked still sounding less threatening.

Before an answer could be made, a screeching sound echoed loudly down the hall and something flew for Fox's head missing by only a centimeter. The woman dug her finger nails into his hand forcing him to let her go so she could run away from both him and whatever the thing was. Fox looked behind him seeing that the demander was too distracted by the thing that flew for his head giving him the opportunity to strike. He attempted to kick his feet to force him onto his back but instead it failed causing the attention to turn back to him. The person first threw a punch but missed and then successfully grabbed Fox's collar throwing him across the floor.

Fox had expected the person come and shoot at him while he was vulnerable yet it wasn't done. The only thing the mystery guy did was place his foot on him to keep him from getting up while he focused on another target.

"I think the Metroid left" the woman told the armored figure.

"Certain? I think we both remember last time someone said something like that," he laughed then looked down at Fox," So can you answer some questions of ours?"

Fox only gave him a questioned gaze.

"Does it even speak English, Anthony?" the woman asked pointing at Fox.

"Maybe not, still gonna carry it along until we find out if does" Anthony said.

"Hey will you stop calling me an 'it'? I have a name!" Fox yelled at them upset by their constant repeat of calling him an "it".

The woman stood shocked for a second before even moving from the immediate response. Anthony, however, was hard to guess since he had a helmet on.

"That answers that one. Well can you tell us if a guy was around here? I mean monotone, completely serious person that doesn't smile? Perhaps by Adam Malkovich?" Anthony questioned grabbing Fox's collar by some odd reason.

They were looking for Adam? He mentioned nothing about an Anthony or a red-haired woman when they talked. Could they be hunting him? Fox couldn't risk turning Adam in since he did know something about his father.

"I have no idea who you're talking about" he lied.

"Hey Madeline, can you call Samus and see if she's found any other crew?" Anthony said with the wrong impression.

To him it must've sounded like he was just asking if they found anything out. For Fox, it sounded more like he was trying to use his friends against him. He tried to kick Anthony off but couldn't like when he tried kicking his feet.

"Hey calm down will you?" Madeline requested for Anthony.

She was about to turn on her comm device when a flash of red flew right by her hand barely burning it. Another came and caught Anthony by surprise when it hit him square in the chest area. He didn't have time to flinch before the next flash came hitting the same area completely knocking him to the ground. Fox was able to roll away from him in that time before Madeline noticed. She was about to call her friend fast but didn't get to before Fox knocked her feet off the ground and she fell.

He turned and saw Anthony get back up on his feet then knocked back down by someone Fox knew. Krystal stood in front of him with her old staff in her hand that everyone forgot she had still.

"Thanks, Krystal. They were looking for Adam." Fox thanked then looked at Madeline who was unconscious on the ground.

"You and Peppy were gone for too long so I had to come down. The Samus Aran he talked about is here onboard. I ran into her but she took a more gentle approach than down here. By the way Adam's snuck on so now Slippy and Falco have met him." Krystal looked at Anthony then went back to Fox.

"Did you run into Peppy? I haven't seen him for awhile at all."

"Samus saw both of you at the same time but not separate. Sorry."

"Okay then, these two won't be much of a problem to us like this," he pointed at the both of them," I say we find Samus and ask for an explanation."

Madeline faked being knocked out and over heard the conversation between the fox and vixen. So he just lied to them about not knowing Adam. She couldn't do anything until the two walked away from her sights. Samus might've known by now about Adam if she ran into the vixen. Her only worry was how she was going to explain the situation to Anthony when he woke.

Anthony was going to be out for awhile certainly so it was all up to Madeline to get to Samus in time. She slowly got to her feet and walked down the hall the way the two did despite her growing back-ache. The halls grew a bit lighter the further she went, yet they were still scary to her since they weren't familiar. She stopped at the elevator door that brought her down there in the first place and started to call Samus.

"Madeline? What is it?" Samus asked as she answered the call.

"The fox you saw earlier is heading to you with a vixen that supposedly ran into you. They know Adam."

"Uh, I kinda know that. To make it short I told what was going on to two of their friends and they said Adam got on their ship somehow and appeared on their bridge."

"You told them!?" Madeline yelled in shock.

"Heck yeah she did!" a new voice said on the other side.

"Who was that?"

"One of them; hey, wait how did you get on our line?" Samus yelled at the other person.

"Yours was interfering with ours! Now Slippy and I can't talk to Fox thank you very much" the person yelled back putting Madeline in the middle of their argument.

"Falco, just get off our line will ya?"

"No, you get off our line. We kinda need to tell the others it's a misunderstanding!"

"Falco let's just get off it. We'll tell them some other way" another voice said.

"Slippy, shut up. This is my business okay? Let me handle it from here"

"Madeline, just get up here with Anthony okay?" Samus asked getting away from the new argument.

Madeline replied with a, "sure" and took the walk back where she came just to drag Anthony along.

"Oh and did you see their other friend, the one I spotted earlier?"

"Don't think so"

"Oh, if you get back to that elevator go to the top floor. Forgot to add"

"Okay since you guys are done let us talk to our teammates okay?" Falco rudely said as Madeline disconnected.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: Explanations

Samus got off her call and looked over at the two she was stuck with in the bridge. Falco was talking on his comm while Slippy was sitting near Samus blushing with embarrassment from their conversation. It was her wonder if he was always yelled at like that if Falco seemed to take it naturally. She took the waiting time to ask one thing she always wondered.

"So if there's five of you guys total, why do you have such a big ship?" she asked turning towards Slippy.

"No clue" he shrugged.

Samus raised a brow in question.

"How can you own it and not know?"

"Me? Own this? No it's Fox's. Well originally his dad's but he inherited the first one and wanted it to be the same"

"What do you-?"

"Don't ask me. Peppy can tell"

Samus stopped her questions. At this point she knew that they wouldn't trust her enough to tell everything. Falco was done talking with the rest of the team and approached Samus,

"You're sure you haven't seen Peppy down there?"

"I only saw him once never more"

The door slid open letting Madeline, Anthony, and Krystal through but the first thing Samus noticed was the condition of Anthony's armor. He had a deep scorch mark on his chest plate deep enough to be close to burn his skin. She kept the urge to ask or run up to him due to keeping reputation intact with these weird people. Something worth questioning was where Fox was. Wasn't he with Krystal?

"Hey where's Fox?" Falco asked straight from everyone's mind.

"He went off to find Peppy. It's odd; he never disappears without a response. I hope he's alright…" Krystal wandered her way to the front of the room where the large viewing window was far from door.

Falco followed her over dragging Slippy, literally, behind with him. Samus could finally talk with Anthony and Madeline after the crazy event caused by one misunderstanding. Though there was an opportunity, no one took it. It was all silent with the trio unsure if this was part of a test, test of trust.

"You weren't joking about the Metroid; it went for my head!" Anthony broke the ice.

"How did it get out here though? Did the Pirates get this far? Well maybe not, their fox friend seemed unfamiliar with it" Madeline whispered.

Samus thought for a few moments from all the past events. Maybe Adam knew the true answer to Madeline's question. Where was he now?

"I really mean it! I've never met these people before, Peppy!"

Everyone looked towards the door where Fox and Peppy were in the middle of an argument.

"Is that why he said, 'I told you, some other time'? What did I tell you about meeting that stranger?!"

Anthony, Madeline, and Samus felt a little awkward sitting there in the middle of an argument that may've involved them. Especially since they weren't seen yet, yet.

"Next time don't go out to do things like that again" Peppy scolded then walked past them without even a glance, Fox walked by them staring at them in question, however.

Odd, still Samus wondered where Adam was instead of worrying what the goofball group was doing. It wasn't her business anymore, the reason she came was for Adam. Nothing else was discussed in the plan, so that meant now or never to ask them.

"Hey, one of you guys know where Adam is?" she gained their attention successfully.

"Not like I know" Falco sarcastically stated.

"Well why don't you show her where with Slippy?" Peppy directed in a strict manner.

"Wait-what? I was-I mean… ugh, fine gramps. Slippy, don't screw up like usual" Falco walked right past everyone without even looking back or slowing for anyone to catch up.

Slippy went up to Samus, and like a child, grabbed her hand to lead her. Anthony and Madeline looked to each other before running after them. Fox watched them leave preparing for what was next. He knew since there was only one reason everyone but him and Krystal were sent out.

"Why did you head out without even telling me? As far as I know you could've been killed or kidnapped and no one would know"

"You wandered off earlier, so why don't you yell at yourself?"

"That's something else"

Falco had lead Samus back down to the Hangar which was weird for her at first until she saw Adam right outside of an open door waiting. She was about to speak when Adam stopped her.

"We'll talk in here and I'll explain some things" he told her. j

Adam lead Samus into the barely empty room where a few half-opened and closed boxes were scattered about. Samus watched Adam stroll across the room waiting for him to sit on one of the boxes before she spoke.  
"Why didn't you try to contact the Federation if you were here Adam? Someone would've come to get you instead of pretending to be dead to us and be with... with... those...people" she struggled to say calmly.  
Adam didn't give a worded response back. He sat there as if he wanted her to calm down before he could say a thing. Samus' frustration only grew to what he was doing with weird animal-people.  
"If I tried someone around here would've noticed then there would be a major problem on both hands," he paused to let her think about it," and besides there's a similar situation on this side."  
"And that would be?" Samus questioned getting ready for a long story.  
He sighed then explained, "Lylat, the current system we're in, has suffered from a parasite enemy they call Aparoids. What happened was that these Aparoids invaded, took over machines plus living beings, and destroyed whole fleets. Those people outside you deem weird are known as the Star Fox team, mercenaries. They fought them back to the Aparoid home world and ended the invasion by killing the queen."  
Samus interrupted, "Wait one minute, if the invasion was ended what does that have to do with you being here?"  
"When I crashed into the world they call Corneria, a Metroid from Sector Zero had escaped and I had an encounter with one of those Aparoids. Ever since I've noticed a grow in reports of Metroids, yet I notice that they are described as a sort of purplish tint color, infection."  
"That's why you're with them?" she said as soon as a commotion started outside.  
"Dang it Slippy! Watch it will ya?!"  
"Sorry Falco"  
"Well don't you ever know how to not be such a fai-" then the sound of someone being hit by a metal object was heard, Falco must've got hit by Slippy's wrench.  
Samus thumbed the door, "Those are the mercenaries that saved this system? Yeah right."  
"Don't deny them, Lady. At times they're capable of doing so," Adam said calmly as he got up and headed to the door, "let's be on our way to settle things out from earlier."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10: New Threat

"What the heck Slippy?!" Falco screamed at Slippy.

Slippy noticed Adam walk out the door right as Falco yelled at him. Samus also came out looking at them weirdly causing Slippy to blush in embarrassment in front of new people. Falco had no clue he was blushing in embarrassment rather than shame and continued on.

"Seriously Slippy! Watch where you put your stupid tools! Just because you lost your tool box doesn't mean you can place them where ever you want! Go get a new one!"

"Now you're starting to sound like Peppy"

"Well what do you-"

Adam cleared his throat allowing Falco to notice him and Samus.

"Are the both of you ready to head back or should I let you finish?"

"Okay, fine. This way" Falco sounded a little ticked off.

"These people? The only conversations I see them having are arguments. How do they work together?" Samus whispered over to Adam.

"Like what I told you, never underestimate them, Lady"

There were no comments afterward from Samus or Adam until they got to the elevator. Slippy decided to ask something to Samus since they were the only ones in there.

"So, uh, what does a Metroid exactly do? I know what it looks like but-uh"

"Didn't I explain?"

"No, you left that out" Falco responded.

"We'll tell when we get back to the bridge" Adam said.

The door opened and Adam walked out ahead of the others. The other three lagged behind then continued the conversation.

"What's with him? Way too quiet for me" Falco whispered to Samus.

"You can't take him because he's, well was, a military officer. Never met one?" Samus told.

"We've met a few. There's General Pepper, there's Bill Gra-"

"Really, Slippy? Don't tell a stranger everything, especially when they break onto here"

"Okay"

Adam reached the bridge door but waited for the other three before entering. Assuring they were a few feet away, he walked into Peppy, Fox, and Krystal talking about something that couldn't be heard. Fox looked over to the four that were entering waiting for them all to head his way.

"So what's up?" Falco asked.

"We've found who called us out here. It was Wolf. But recently we found that his hiding spot was brutally attacked by unknown forces. He and the rest of Star Wolf turned themselves in to the Cornerian police after their hideout was annihilated," Fox looked at the ground, "I think we know who's behind it"

"Star Wolf?" Madeline thought out loud.

"They don't like us. That work?"

"So you think the Aparoids and Metroids are behind this? That seems unlikely to me Metroids aren't destructive but they do waste life" Anthony questioned.

"We won't know for sure if it was them, they won't tell what happened. The only thing we got was that Wolf directly asked that we go to Sauria and visit Tricky to know what happened"

"Wait one second, Peppy. Why would your enemy ask you to visit somewhere to know what happened? It could be trap" Samus knew if she had an enemy like that there would be a trick.

"There isn't a choice, we have to visit Tricky. Good thing we know him or we'd be stuck" Krystal stated looking at her.

"Aww, now I know I should've gotten the bug spray before we left. I'm going to be bitten a lot" Slippy whined gaining a few "really?" faces from everyone.

"Let's get there as soon as possible" Fox said then split off from everyone.

"As soon as possible" Samus repeated


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11: The "Shadow"

Madeline followed Slippy back to the dark maintenance hall to fix up some things from before. Madeline didn't feel like talking with him but surely it was the opposite for Slippy. He kept asking things like, "Seriously no one tells me what a Metroid is, can you tell me?" "Have you ever seen Falco's girlfriend? Well actually she follows him around, but still have you?" and "Does everyone from the Federation sneak up on people?" She blocked him out of her mind until he asked something she knew too well.

"Why does that Adam guy stare at you weirdly? Did you take something of his or something?"

"I didn't take anything"

"Then why?"

Madeline thought for a while on how to explain something like this to a stranger. Should he know about the Bottle Ship? Samus might've already told so why not?

"I was a research director on a research station, illegal research station. I guess I heard that after many monsters were set lose he had come aboard with his platoon and Samus searching for survivors"

"So that's how you know that woman! Wait, what happened?"

"Fine, what was being researched was how to control Zebesians and Metroids as bio-weapons. Something happened and the Zebesians were set loose killing everyone else on board. I only managed to survive because I hid in a room setting a Metroid Queen loose if anything came too close to me. And I know you're about to ask, so let me tell. A Metroid is a being that lives off of any creature's life energy and drains it. I know I shouldn't have been part of a program that brought Metroids back, but when I was offered to come all I thought was how I could've been promoted if the experiments went well. Maybe it is my fault this is happening"

"Hey if it helps the reason everyone likes to yell at me is because I mess-up way more often"

Madeline was about to comment when she heard a screech coming from the room they were by. Slippy recognized the scream and was getting more and more nervous each second standing still.

"You were asking what a Metroid was because you have seen it too"

Slippy nodded as he slowly backed away from the door. Madeline looked at him then back to the door figuring what to do.

"We're not going to get anything done if it's there. I'll go in and trap it while you stay out here and make sure it doesn't escape"

Before a word against it was said Madeline rushed in the room making sure the door was locked tight. For some reason it felt like the room was colder than in the other areas she'd been in. Why was that? Metroids didn't like the cold, so what was one doing here? It could be a mistake on where it was since after all it was a guess.

She was about to leave but the feeling that there was something else there kept her in place. Where could that Metroid be? Being stationary wouldn't help her find it meaning Madeline had to move around the room to find it. Move to where was the real question in her mind because the metroid could be anywhere or somewhere else. She walked around the whole room and saw how much damage was done there that must've been the metroid.

She stopped to inspect one the pipes letting her guard down. She had no clue that the metroid hovered right above her ready to attack. Madeline saw the shadow slightly and turned in time to see it launch right toward her ready to latch to her head. In very short seconds the metroid was going to take all her life energy and it'll be all over. That's what Madeline expected, but that's not what happened.

She covered her face with her arms as a reflex but was surprised when something slammed against her arms then the sound of ice shattering was heard. The few seconds in between where nothing else happened told that the threat was gone. Madeline lowered her arms to see what in the world had occurred and was confused. There the metroid was on the ground, shattered and frozen. But, how?

"Always be ready for somethin', common knowledge"

Madeline looked around trying to find the voice's source.

"What? Right here"

She looked behind her seeing a dark figure hiding in the shadow of all the piping. The person was well hidden enough to keep Madeline from seeing what they looked like.

"Next time might not be lucky. Keep in mind self-defense is important with those things. Quite nasty-"

"Who are you exactly,? I don't think there's another member in this team" Madeline looked at the person suspiciously.

"Hey not yet, when ya find my friend on Sauria I'll give an intro 'kay? Let me say one thing, learn to get along with Star Fox and you'll find them useful in this situation. They'll have most of the answers"

"Hey! Are you okay?

Madeline turned at the door seeing Slippy there doing the opposite of what she wanted him to do. She went back to looking at the other person yet she disappeared off.

"Ma'am?"

"Took care of it, just don't use these ice cubes for any lemonade" she pointed at what was left of the metroid.

"Okay. Let's start fixing this disaster already"

"Yeah" Madeline muttered.

She could've told him, but she decided to keep it to herself. Though, she had one person in mind that might have seen who it was.

"Slippy reports he's fixing some of the piping now. That's one thing done" Fox reported to the others.

While Slippy and Madeline were down doing repairs the others were still in the bridge making sure the path to Sauria was clear. Fox couldn't fully trust Samus and her friends yet so he planned to keep each one individually by his friends to see if they trusted each one. He sent Slippy with Madeline, Peppy with Adam, Krystal with Anthony, and him with Samus. Falco just had to sit on the side due to the fact that he wasn't exactly the best person to socialize with. He still had to watch them though for safety reasons.

So far Samus wasn't doing any suspicious activity and she wasn't talking much. It made things easy for Fox so he could get his work done without much worry.

"What time do we get there you think?" Anthony asked from the other side of the room.

"Estimated time… one day" Rob, the ship's android, responded while it worked on flying the ship.

"Still getting used to that thing" Samus whispered to herself.

Fox was tempted to tell her he was still getting used to her but kept it in his head in case it counted as offensive to her. He checked on how his friends reacted with their "assigned" people just in case. Adam and Peppy seemed fine as they had short, brief conversations about possibly the latest events. Krystal was laughing at something Anthony told her then she whispered something back making him laugh in turn. "_You'd better not be flirting with her_" Fox thought in his head as he looked away.

He knew what Falco was up to before he even got a glance since it was typical of him; sleeping. Falco just sat in one of the chairs catching z's with his beak open snoring. At least he wasn't needed now or there would be a serious yelling right about now.

"So, what's Sauria like? I've never heard about it so…" Samus asked Fox looking directly at him.

He looked at her for a minute or so. Is it okay to tell her about the dinosaurs?

"Different, how 'bout that?"

"As in what?"

"Not science. All magic. All dinosaurs"

Samus chuckled getting the weird eye from him.

"Dinosaurs? Wow that's just weird. The human home world had those at one point a VERY long time ago"

"What happened?"

"Extinction. Still not so clear how, but you know millions of years ago"

"Huh, coincidence. Not sure if yours were but the Saurians are tribal. The ones I know are the Earthwalkers, Cloudrunners, Lightfoots, Sharpclaw, and Snowhorns. Just don't take things from a Lightfoot, bring a Cloudrunner and Earthwalker near each other, and I highly recommend not encountering a Sharpclaw"

"Uh… why?"

"Long story. Long story. Okay the Lightfoots thought I stole their gem and they tied me to a totem pole and started poking me with spears. Cloudrunners and Earthwalkers generally don't get along. Plus Sharpclaw are violent"

"Wow you must've really angered someone to be poked with a spear. I'll just stay away from those people"

"Better"

As soon as the word came out it went back to silence between the two. Samus looked over at Adam and thought of something else to ask.

"Hey, Fox. Why was it earlier your friend, Peppy, was yelling at you like he was your dad?"

"Why do you worry about Adam like he's your dad? How about if we do end up fully trusting each other I'll explain and you can too"

"Fair enough, obvious we aren't at that stage yet. Actually, can I go back and grab something from my ship?"

"I'll have to follow though. Is it important?"

Samus thought.

"Know what? I'll get it later, more important things need to be done here"

She looked back to Adam and started thinking about some things. She wanted to get Adam's picture but she wondered about what Commander Frank said. It was still there after the long time even when they cleared it out. That and on her way here a fox broke into the offices. Could they be related? Did Fox know what it was about? Maybe not since there could be many foxes out there from Lylat. Yet, it seemed too coincidental in her mind.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12: Sauria

Rob had miscounted the time between Sargasso and Sauria being one day. Turns out it was actually five hours including the time spent finding a place to land the _Great Fox 2_ without crushing things. The early time frustrated Falco who was wanting the twenty-four hours of sleep without having to do work. Everyone but him didn't really care though and carried on to head outside through the hangar.

"Handy how you can walk through the same area you fly through!" Anthony commented to Slippy on their way out.

Samus watched him leave as she stood by her ship. She decided to wait for Fox and Adam who were finishing a conversation in the elevator. To her surprise Peppy was walking with Madeline in discussion about the natives on the planet. Adam wasn't far behind and came up to Samus.

"Ready, lady? Remember this will be completely different from Federation planets"

She nodded watching Fox pass. She'd been standing there for some time and hadn't seen Krystal pass by. She was about to ask when Adam answered.

"Krystal went out early saying she was going to explain some things to the natives. I'd say she knows a lot here to do that"

They started to head out with the others at a steady pace. Samus looked behind her wondering if later she would get the picture. Yes it had to be. Now it's too late and not the kind of time.

"Is there something?" Adam looked a bit concerned.

"Sorry just trying to decide something"

See turned around and was met with the view of what Fox had called Cape Claw. The ocean view was amazing to see after all of her traveling in space. The cape had the sand beach, a few palms, and a dinosaur she thought was a Diplodocus standing in the water.

"Oh-kay, might've forgotten Hightops. There's very few of those guys left so enjoy it while you see it" Fox told Samus as she came up to him.

"Kodak moment, Princess" Anthony joked pulling out a camera and taking a picture.

"Kodak moment? Is that supposed to mean something?" Falco wondered.

"It's supposed to mean picture moment"

"Oh that works"

Fox looked around in search for Krystal. She was supposed to come with Tricky real soon. He looked and saw everyone backing up from where he was. What were they doing?

"Foooxxxx!" oh no.

He couldn't even move in time before a huge Triceratops landed right on top of him surprisingly not crushing him completely.

"Kodak moment!" Anthony yelled taking a few shots.

"Make sure to get his face"

"Falco!...Not…helping!" Fox barely managed to say from the crushing pressure.

The huge dinosaur rolled off him then jumped around in excitement.

"Oh boy, oh boy! You came back Fox! I told you I'd get this place fixed for you and Krystal's honeymoon!"

Madeline looked and saw the team all giggling like little kids when he said "honeymoon".

"Err, uh Tricky I thought we discussed this!" He whispered to the dinosaur.

"Aww, I thought that's what you came for! What am I supposed to tell the others?"

"The what?"

Everyone looked past Tricky and saw two other Triceratopses coming along carrying different types of flowers and there Krystal was on one of their backs.

"Jehho! Kxoho aj de xedoneen! A jkacc kxadb je! (_Sorry guys! There is no honeymoon! I still think so!_)" Tricky told the others when they were right next to him.

"Ev seijo! Kxoo'ho fohvosk veh oukx ekxoh! (_Of course! They're perfect for each other!_)" One of them replied as Krystal slipped off.

"Kxudj, a't cabo ke ro xoho nhod kxoho aj edo! (_Thanks, I'd like to be here when there is one!_)" Krystal said walking to her friends.

"What were they saying?" Madeline asked Slippy.

"I barely even know"

The small crowd behind Fox stood puzzled on what the conversation was about, especially the human part. Madeline came forward from the crowd grabbing the attention of the dinosaurs.

"Hi, uh excuse me but we happen to be here because we've been told to see you by Wolf"

"O'Donnell" Fox added.

"Ex, homomroh, Prince Tricky? (_Oh, remember, Prince Tricky_?)" one of Tricky's people said.

"Him? Yeah, yeah there was something! I thought this would be a quick visit before my meeting! As soon as it's done we can discuss it! What about your other friends, Fox?"

"Succ kxom, Furskins, udt kxoo sud ukkodt. (_Call them, Furskins, so they can attend_)"

"Let's go then! C'mon now!" Tricky lowered himself as the other two did.

It took them awhile to realize he wanted them to ride on their backs. Fox and Krystal were the first to climb onto Tricky to demonstrate for the others still uncertain.

"Oh I'm going to be sick this trip" Madeline whined walking to a different dinosaur.

"Ex khijk mo, ak'j nehjo ed u Cloudrunner. (_Oh trust me, it's worse on a Cloudrunner_)"

Falco was the last one and he noticed Peppy didn't follow.

"What? Too much for ya Gramps?"

"No, I just need to do something before I go. I'll catch up later"

"Are you sure, Peppy?" Krystal asked while Falco was trying to jump onto the same dinosaur as Slippy.

"Uh-huh. I'll be fine"

"Okay Fox's boss! To the Walled City!"

"Tricky, he's not my boss!"

Off the others went leaving Peppy behind. He watched them leave until they were gone from his sights.

"Wonder how that ride'll be" someone said

"Are you going to keep following us or something?"

"Hey not ALL the time, just when things need settled out"

"Careful with that, they're wondering where I went to earlier. By the way, what's here that Wolf wanted us to see?"

"Can't tell ya, but I will say that I have a friend here they're supposed to meet"


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13: Road to the Walled City

"Urgh, I AM going to be sick!" Madeline yelled turning a little green.

"Fcoujo dek ed mo! (_Please not on me!_)" the Triceratops she was on pleaded.

"Whoa there!" Anthony grabbed Madeline's arm as she bent over the side throwing-up.

"Oh yeah, not like I was wanting lunch later" Falco sarcastically said trying to not do the same.

"So how's it been, Fox? Are you beating more bad guys? I want in too!"

"Well, uh sort-of. We'll discuss that later"

"Hey one second, how do you know each other?" Anthony asked still holding Madeline's arm.

"Fox came here to save Sauria from General Scales three years ago and I helped too!"

"Dek zijk Sauria. (_Not just Sauria_)" Krystal whispered to Tricky.

"You know what? It would be useful to have a translator around here! Why does Fox get the only one?" Falco exclaimed crossing his arms.

"Zijk ujb ij ke jfoub Cornerian! (_Just ask us to speak Cornerian!_)"

"See?! See?! See what I mean?!"

"A walo if. (_I give up_)"

"Just ask them to speak Cornerian, Falco" Krystal told Falco.

"Ooj, ooj! Nxuk kxo nemud juat! (_Yes, yes! What the woman said!_)"

"We need to focus on what's most important and why we're here" Adam was stuck behind Slippy and Falco and already he couldn't take it.

Samus looked over a few times noticing how the two were cat fighting at times over something and she thought Adam's face when they did so was humorous.

"So what's the meeting?" Samus was a bit curious about what they were going to see.

"It's supposed to be about some events that have happened lately, all of the tribes are there"

"Kxo Cloudrunners, Thorntails, Snowhorns, Hightops, Lightfoots, udt olox Sharpclaws. (_The Cloudrunners, Thorntails, Snowhorns, Hightops, Lightfoots, and even Sharpclaws_)"

"So you're Earthwalkers?" Samus concluded.

"Ooj! Keeb Kxuk cedw? (_Yes! Took that long?_)"

"Sometimes I forget you're not familiar with this" Fox stated.

"Hey I have an idea. It'll be awhile until we get to the city so why don't we learn about each other? I'm Tricky prince and Fox's friend!"

"De cemmodk. (_No comment_)" the two Earthwalkers said.

"I don't want to talk personal to strangers" Falco stared at Slippy in a way to keep him from talking.

"Not quite yet" was Adam's statement.

"Learned more about Adam than ever, but I'm not at that stage of trust" Madeline commented trying to keep from barfing again.

The rest just stayed quiet expecting Tricky to learn soon they didn't really know each other well enough to tell.

"Wow, they aren't very social" Tricky told his two assistants.

"A kxeiwxk kxoho neict ro meho. (_I thought there would be more_)"

"Ted'k wok kxojo foefco. (_Don't get these people_)"

"Here's the thing Tricky, some of us have only just met so-"

"Oh you could have said that!" Tricky disrupted Fox.

"Please tell me we're almost there… I can't stand this ride anymore!"

Anthony looked around to everyone trying to not look at Madeline getting sick. Samus felt lucky she wasn't there to see what he did. Fox and Krystal weren't so bad unlike the two Adam was with so her choice of a ride wasn't too bad. Looking at the sky somehow made it feel like the trip was very long when she saw the sun moving quick across the sky. If it weren't for over-hearing Slippy saying time was fast here it would've counted as hours in her head.

Samus looked back in front of her and saw two Dryosauroses dressed like old American Indians running to them with spears in hand.

"Nxuk'j nhedw? (_What's wrong?_)" Tricky asked the two.

"Kxo Jellyclaws uho ad Lightfoot Village. (_The Jellyclaws are in Lightfoot Village_)" one responded.

"They said the Jellyclaws are in their village," Krystal translated for the others," Sud no xocf? (_Can we help?_)"

"Vado, semo Furballs. (_Fine, come Furballs_)" The two ran off.

"Let's go guys" Fox called jumping off Tricky.

"I still think we need a translator!" Falco yelled as he jumped off his ride.

"Uh, I think that-"

"Just get off, Slippy!" Falco forcefully grabbed Slippy's leg and pulled him off.

Madeline got off and turned to the Earthwalker she was riding to ask something.

"What's a Jellyclaw? Oh, answer in English-no Cornerian I mean"

"It's something that's been attacking tribes recently. That's what the meeting's about" one of them answered in full English/Cornerian.

"Thanks for the partial ride dinosaur guys! We'll call for a taxi later" Anthony grabbed Madeline's hand and ran dragging her along to catch up with the others.

"Nxuk noho kxejo kxadwj? (_What were those things?_)"

"Nxe suhoj? A ted'k xulo ke jmocc lemak udomeho! (_Who cares? I don't have to smell vomit anymore!_"

"Xoo, cok'j wok rusb ke kxo sako. (_Hey, let's get back to the city_)"


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14: Trouble in Lightfoot Village

The group of eight ran through the Saurian forest with Fox in the lead. It was very noticeable that there were no dinosaurs in their path and even the various creatures that usually swooped down to attack. Seemed everything was hiding from whatever these "Jellyclaws" were.

"Are you sure that there isn't more than one Lightfoot Village? C'mon Fox, we should've not lost those weird guys"

"Falco I'm sure there's one"

"Oh yeah, trust Fox's opinion when we could've followed the-"

"Oh my goodness Falco; will you please be quiet?" Madeline couldn't take Falco anymore.

Honestly, everyone was both confused and annoyed at this point because of this uninformed situation. Some of the group thought this was a prank the dinosaurs set up due to the immediate out-of-nowhere problem. Fox knew though that the name the Lightfoots gave the invader sounded familiar to a description he heard, the Metroid. So Metroids were here too and were hunting the different tribes. He wasn't going to accept that.

Fox came to a halt when he was outside of a mossy cobblestone wall recognizing it. The others behind him didn't see him stop in time and started to stop and eventually knock each other over. Slippy, however, was the one furthest to the side ending up running into a tree with a painted target on it. Fox looked behind him seeing everyone stacked up on the ground (minus Slippy).

"What are you guys doing? Anyway here's the village, behind that wall"

"How're we supposed to get in with the wall? We can't blow this one up" Falco asked.

"Easy, I remember there's a gate that's opened with a combo," Fox looked over to Slippy dazed on the ground, "Slippy! Did that tree make a weird sound?"

Slippy jumped back to his feet and rubbed his forehead, "All I heard was my skull being crushed"

Falco laughed at Slippy and received stares from Samus.

"What was the sound supposed to signify?" Samus asked.

"Well the gate combo is hitting the trees, and they make a weird sound. I don't think they work like that anymore. Well I hope you all know how to climb walls. I'll go first to check on things" Fox walked up to the wall and started to slowly grab the parts sticking out to climb it.

The seven were still stacked up and noticed that when Fox went away. Samus (who sadly was the one at the very bottom) looked up to see Anthony at the top sleeping.

"Hey Anthony, I don't know if you know but you're kinda heavy" Madeline moaned trying to wiggle herself out.

"I don't know, I might take a nap here"

"Anthony I hate you some days"

"Anthony!"

"Oh come on"

"Slippy stop taking pictures!"

Samus looked to her left and saw Slippy taking pictures with Anthony's camera laughing. Oh how the tables turned for Falco. Samus guessed Anthony wasn't getting off just for this scheme. "_Well Slippy better print extra copies_" she thought.

"Hey guys! Stop laying there and get up here!" Fox yelled from the top of the wall.

Samus took it that Slippy had enough pictures of this and they did need to get more serious. She used all of her strength to push herself up throwing everyone off of her. Slippy wasn't done with the pictures when Anthony went further by grabbing Falco's foot and holding it up like he caught a large fish. Adam didn't stop to laugh; instead he went to climb up the wall where Fox was still waiting. Samus followed behind watching every stone he grabbed to get up.

"So what's going on?" Adam asked Fox once he got up.

"See, the natives barred themselves in their own houses and guess what's floating around" Fox pointed at something.

Samus got to the top wondering what he was pointing at. She looked behind the wall and saw a small swamp with small circular two-story huts sticking out of the water. Samus managed to spot what was being pointed at; there was a Metroid grabbing at a metal bar where two Lightfoots were hiding behind poking at it with spears. Surprisingly she could see that the poking was successful by the fact that the Metroid was bleeding only a little. That didn't seem possible.

"What's the plan?" Adam scanned the area planning.

"You guys are more familiar with those things than I am. What do you say?" Fox looked concerned for the two Lightfoots.

"It seems that the Metroids are weaker and don't require Ice Beams like they used to. If they can do damage to them with simple spears then that means that a simple charged shot could do" Samus figured that guessing that they might be easier than thought.

The three were joined by the rest who finally got up. Everyone looked into the scenery and spotted the same Metroid.

"Here's the plan; we separate out and take out the Metroids with charged shots because they're weaker than we first thought. Don't let your guard down though" Samus told the others basically stating what she knew.

"I think I got it, but just in case could you please say that again? I wasn't listening" Anthony joked.

No one else got it and left him there to go do what they had to do.

"Oh come on guys! That was from Earth's most funny movie!" Anthony called out while he jumped off into the swamp water.

Fox stood at the edge of the water looking around for more new enemies. First thing to do was be sure yet he saw only the one. He looked at the hut trying to find the ladder up to the Metroid which was in the water torn off. "_Wow, that thing must really not want us to get there_" he thought as he looked for another option. There was another close hut that still had the ladder. There was nothing said about what the needed distance was.

"Only way up down?" Samus asked as she approached him.

"Yeah, but we could get a shot from the nearby hut"

"That's good, I'll see if I can keep it from seeing you" Samus ran off a different direction.

Fox wasted no time and ran into the deep-murky water reaching the ladder fast. He climbed it and could see Samus climbing up a nearby totem pole at the same time. Fox could only think of what her plan was as he went to the next ladder up. He reached the top and looked at the Metroid with better detail than up on the wall. It had a purple tint and it was more vicious-looking with two extra big claws.

Only one second could be spent studying it as a beam bounced off the Metroid's skin confusing it. So that's what she was up to. Fox took a quick glance seeing Samus on top of the pole shooting small shots at it to anger it. There wasn't time to waste so he took out his blaster and charged it up until it was ready. The Metroid figured their trick out too soon then saw Fox from the light his blaster emitted.

Thanks to the small shots fired at it, it was steaming mad so it flew for Fox leaving the two Lightfoots alone. Fox noticed and took the shot at it when it was crossing between the two huts right before it could get to him with his eyes closed. He half-expected it to not work but looked a few seconds later freaked out by the sight of the Metroid swelling up inside before freezing and falling into the water.

"Is that normal?!" he yelled over to Samus and she nodded "no".

"Gah! Get away!" Fox looked down at the bank seeing no other than Slippy running from a large wave of Metroids.

"Hey it's my job to do this you ugly things!" Falco yelled at them shooting a few rounds.

Fox jumped off the platform of the hut back into the water to go help his friends like he always ended up doing. Right when he hit the water it felt like something was biting his foot but it wasn't possible to see what with the dark waters. He ignored it until he got to the more shallow part and saw it was the frozen Metroid grabbing his foot and shivering as it did. So it was clinging for life was it? Or was it stealing for life? Fox couldn't let it stay there so he went to the edge of the water and stomped the foot it was on letting it shatter like glass.

"Gaaahhh!" Slippy was running more franticly when one of the Metroids had grabbed his hat.

"Slippy calm down! We can't help if you keep running away!" this time Krystal was chasing him using her staff.

Fox was about to run in to help when he heard a whistle come from the direction of a hill with a large circular entrance.

"Hey! Get them over here!" something that he didn't know was a space pirate yelled then ran into the hill.

Fox looked back in front of him then pursued Slippy and the Metroids. He ran up to Krystal to inform her.

"Get these things to the hill!"

"Why?"

"New plan!"

He ran a little faster catching up to Slippy this time barely having the breath left to inform him.

"Slippy run to that hill then jump to the side once you get to the entrance!"

Slippy changed direction to where Fox indicated desperate to get away from the Metroids. Imagine the laughs the natives got when they saw Slippy running to the hill like a weirdo. Whether or not the natives laughed Slippy did as he was told and jumped to the side as he came to the entrance into the hill. The Metroids chasing him assumed he was still running straight and went into the hill.

"What's supposed to happen?" Krystal asked a panting Fox.

He shrugged at the exact same time a circular disc rolled into the hill entrance sealing it and the Metroids inside. Slippy walked up to it looking down. One of the Metroids still had his hat.

"Hey you're all still alive!" Anthony called out to them followed by the rest of the group.

"You too!" Fox called back.

Everyone gathered back together heading for the gate out leaving the Lightfoots to decide if they wanted to go out or not.

"Crazy how many Metroids were hiding in the trees" Anthony said.

"I lost my hat…"

"Oh c'mon Slippy, you can just get another one" Falco suggested

"But I-"

"So at least we know the fact there are Metroids elsewhere, the Aparoid part will need further proof" Adam confirmed getting the subject away from Slippy's hat.

"Yeah, now who's calling the Taxi?" Samus joked looking straight at Anthony.

"Well… hey Fox, Why don't you lead the way to the city?" Anthony stepped behind Fox to show he was in the lead.

"Really? Ever been to a city? Speaking of which since we can't call for a ride we'll walk because people want me to apparently"

"We have to ask your friend Tricky about both the situation here and what Wolf O'Donnell is about here" Adam drew attention back to getting to the city once more.

Everyone nodded in agreement then headed back on their original road letting Fox lead once more.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15: The Walled City Meeting

"Oei bden oei'ho jcen nxod… (_You know you're slow when…_)"

"U nuo ectoh fohjed wokj xoho vahjk! (_A way older person gets here first!_)"

An Earthwalker and Lightfoot passed by laughing when Peppy arrived at the city. Maybe it was good he didn't know what they were saying but it wasn't like anything would happen if he did. The city itself wasn't a London or New York type of city yet more like step pyramid buildings in separate areas type. In the middle of all the buildings was the biggest step pyramid in red and the front of it had a ramp leading to the top.

"Fox's boss, you walked here?" Tricky approached Peppy from the side where he appeared to be waiting.

"How else? Where are the others by the way?"

"I was waiting for them. Everyone went to Lightfoot Village to handle a problem there"

"Tricky xihho if xoho roveho kxo Sharpclaw wok ke kxo sako! (_Tricky hurry up here before the Sharpclaw get to the city!_)" an Earthwalker called out from the top of the big pyramid.

"We can wait for them up there before the Sharpclaw get here" Tricky headed for the ramp where his people were waiting.

"Why is it those bat things only seem to see Madeline?" Samus questioned after they left the forest and swooping bats behind.

"I think it's because her hair's the first color they see" Slippy answered looking at the pouting Madeline.

"It was no fair, while I was being scratched at you guys kept walking away" Madeline pouted like a child crossing her arms.

"Because none of us want to be attacked too" Falco stated ready to just leave her behind.

"Stop the arguing and keep walking already!" Fox yelled at them from the front of the group.

It seemed that many of the creatures here feared the Metroids as much as the native tribes. If that was so then it could be easier to tell where Metroids are if there is a lack of monsters in an area.

"Finally there's a city, when we get there I call for some nap time" Falco pointed the blue and red wall up ahead.

"There is no time for napping" Adam corrected Falco.

"I'll find time for one"

"Yeah, because all the time is Falco's sleeping time" Krystal whispered over to Anthony.

Fox kept himself from glaring at Anthony with a sort of jealousy. It was best to not be in a jealous state when arriving at an important tribe meeting.

"Is that Peppy?" Samus gained everyone's attention while pointing at the top of the city's large step pyramid.

It had to be him because he was the only rabbit that travelled with them that and only one person that could carry a conversation with Tricky.

"I have a feeling this meeting's there. Let's head up so we don't end up being late like we might already be" Adam started his way up encouraging the others to follow.

Samus stared at the top of the step-pyramid questioning how in the world big dinosaurs were all going to fit up there including the eight of them. Fox and Krystal must've been whispering something to each other about how it would be possible since they seemed to have a easier time figuring it out. If only she could hear what exactly so it would be less complicated on how.

"Don't get left behind, Princess" Anthony grabbed Samus' hand and pulled her along with the rest.

In her mind, it was awkward with both of not knowing what was at top and her best friend holding her hand. She thought it couldn't be worse until she reached the top finding Falco giggling at her and Anthony holding hands. Very mature of him. Samus threw her hand free from Anthony then wandered off to Fox who was having a quick chat with a random Lightfoot standing in the middle of the room. One second the dinosaur was there then the next a bright light enveloped him and he was gone.

Fox was about to step in the Lightfoot's place as he saw Samus' questioned look. He didn't speak to her yet instead did as the person before him did. After he disappeared in the light, Krystal walked up to her and pointed the ground that he had been.

"There was once a Krazoa shrine entrance there. I don't remember how it disappeared but according to the earlier Lightfoot this was still usable so the shrine was used as a meeting place" Krystal watched as Madeline walked to the spot to study it when she was caught off guard and disappeared from the light too.

Anthony and Adam looked as though she was disintegrated in front of them. The two were now the only ones who had no clue what it actually did. Falco learned it from Slippy so he dragged both of them into the light.

"Xihho, xihho! Sharpclaw adsemadw! (_Hurry, Hurry! Sharpclaw incoming!_)" two Pterodactyls (Samus guessed they were the Cloudrunners) cawed out as they went to the light just like the others.

"Let's get to the others" Krystal stepped aside for Samus to step into the center.

Samus did so and got a quick glimpse of Slippy being surprised by something but what wasn't exactly clear as the light surrounded her. Her expectations of previous times she'd done teleporting made her think there would be a bit of a sick feeling when she got to the other end but there wasn't any. Samus was confused then noticed how the whole room of dinosaurs were staring at Madeline who was confused herself so Samus pretended to understand. It was probably best. Just probably for her sake.

Samus stepped off the colorful circle she was on in time for Krystal to appear. The two joined everyone else they were with in one corner of the room. Anthony seemed cheerful to see Samus once more in a fairly-lighted room full of the different tribes Prince Tricky had told them about (minus the Sharpclaw).

"This is, uh, an experience to… write in a history book" Madeline whispered over to her friends as she managed to get away from the stares of the many dinosaurs.

"Yeah I guess, too bad we'll have to pretend this never happened when we get back home for this place's sake" Anthony made an upset face as he looked around the room.

Anthony walked over to Fox and whispered something Samus couldn't hear. Whatever it was he looked as though he was explaining it making a "T-Rex Arm" sort of arm (he was asking if there were any T-Rexes there). The response from Fox? He whispered something back while using his finger as though he was slicing his throat. It had to be the most random unheard conversation Samus had ever seen from Anthony and now Fox.

"What was that about?" was what Madeline asked him when he came back over to their spot.

"I don't think I should say it out loud here" he answered.

Krystal was about to tell something to them when a chanting in Saurian was echoed across the room.

"Xuac kxo don udt vahjk Sharpclaw mosxudas udt coutoh, Slippy! (_Hail the new and first Sharpclaw mechanic and leader, Slippy!_)" something snarled.

"I'm a what?!"

Madeline looked towards the direction of the noise and laughed at the sight of Slippy being carried in the air by four small T-Rex looking dinosaurs in full armor. Slippy wasn't exactly certain about what they were calling him and was desperate to be put down as he tried several times to escape the grasp of what was the Sharpclaw. There was no support in his struggle from his team for they were standing there either trying not to laugh or a certain person stood there taking pictures of it with Anthony's camera.

"Hey guys help please!" Slippy begged but got none.

"A kxadb kxuk oeih don coutoh fhovohj nucbadw. (_I think your new leader prefers walking_)" Tricky said as he walked from an archway leading to a smaller room.

The Sharpclaws dropped Slippy and followed him as he ran in panic to his friends. Every time he tried to hide behind Fox he moved away due to the fact that he did not get along with the Sharpclaws.

"Je ed nakx kxo mookadw. (_So on with the meeting_)" one Anklyosauris-like dinosaur (Thorntail) cleared his throat.

"Ooj, ooj, mookadw. (_Yes, yes, meeting_)" one Lightfoot wearing a few feathers and paint repeated.

Krystal gave each person of the non-Saurian group a tap on the shoulder for them to stand next to her so she could translate.

"Eih kharo aj uc uchouto toscadoadw rik no nehho veh kxo juvoko ev eih oeidw kxudj ke kxo Jellyclaws! (_Our tribe is in decline already but we worry for the safety of our young thanks to the Jellyclaws!_)" one Hightop exclaimed and giving a stomp that shook the place.

"Battadw ij? No noho ucmejk opkadk rosuijo ev Scales udt kxo Aparoids! (_Kidding us? We were almost extinct because of Scales and the Aparoids!_)" a Sharpclaw exclaimed back.

"No xulo ke vadt nxoho udt Jellyclaw kharo calo udt rhadw zitwmodk veh nxuk kxoo'lo tedo! (_We have to find where the Jellyclaw live and bring judgment for what they've done!_)" was the exclamation from a Wooly Mammoth (Snowhorn).

"Wait one second, I'm sorry to be in the middle of this but I've encountered many of what you call 'Jellyclaws' before and they are going to be impossible for you guys to beat so many. I'm sure you know what they can do by now; drain life energy from any living creature until they're nothing and apparently here they bite too" Samus walked to the middle of the room after hearing the translated part of the conversation.

The different tribe members looked at one another as if there was a silent conversation. A Lightfoot stepped forward during the silence to question her.

"What you mean 'impossible' skin creature?" he said in plain English/Cornerian.

Samus didn't let the shock of him speaking English make her forget what to say. This wasn't the place to be laughed at.

"I know what they're capable of now that I've seen the ones here. Where I come from the Metroid, as we humans call it, are called extinct by my hand. Seems that was wrong. Before they could easily be defeated with ice weaponry and a simple… hit afterward" Samus barely found the right word to describe shooting to the Saurians.

The whole room's attention was on Samus now and it proved to be more pressure on her since she'd never acted like that before. It must've been Adam nodding her on to continue that helped relieve that pressure and continue on. She took one quick breath then went on.

"Because of my encounter with the Metroids or Jellyclaw I now know that their source of almost indestructibility is in fact the fault of the greed of humankind and I plan to fix that fault with the help I can get. There aren't enough facts about their weakness for me to determine the best way to kill them but I have found out that they do bleed when they couldn't before from spears," Samus looked over to some Lightfoots that were holding their spears up in pride, "which makes me believe that this so called 'Aparoid' is also involved in the sudden appearance of Metroids-"

"So they might be vulnerable to the same things as Aparoids" Peppy finished for Samus.

Everyone, including Samus' friends and the Star Fox team, engaged in conversations on the possibility of her theory being true. Prince Tricky listened in to everyone's thoughts while thinking of his own. He made up his mind and walked up to Samus just like the Lightfoot silencing the room again.

"So what is the plan you have? We nearly were wiped out because of the Aparoids and may be because of the Metro-Jellyclaw" Tricky corrected himself on the name for Metroid.

"I don't have much of one. But what if all of your tribes stayed close to one another and give an alarm for your citizens to hide in secured buildings or anything of the like while me, my friends, and the Star Fox team try to find out what we need to know about the threat to counter it" Samus waited for the response as what had to be the tribe leaders, including Tricky, discussing the best options.

It had to be at least three or four minutes until they came to an agreement but it was even more time for them to check with the other fellow tribe members. The time made more pressure on Samus but there was no sign from Adam to relieve it this time. He stood there thinking about what she had come up with for a plan but he never said if he approved or not.

"No'lo semo ke u tosajaed kxuk eih kojk fejjarco melo meo uj nocc ro nxuk oei xulo evvohot ke ij. (_We've come to a decision that our best possible move may as well be what you have offered to us_)" the blue-cloaked Cloudrunner queen announced breaking the silence.

"Av Star Fox khijkj oei, kxod no ned'k zitwo Sauria'j julaehj. (_If Star Fox trusts you, then we won't judge Sauria's saviors_)" a Thorntail completed the statement forgetting Samus only knew English.

"They basically said your plan is good" Tricky beat Krystal for the translation.

Samus expected Tricky to dismiss the meeting just like military men in the Federation did but instead he gave a loud roar then walked off to the circle in the room for dismissal. The other dinosaurs followed behind except the Sharpclaw leaving the place to feel emptier than it felt before.

"Uddeidso eih doh coutoh ke kxo Krazoa! (_Announce our new leader to the Krazoa!_)" the biggest of the four Sharpclaw yelled out pumping his fists in the air.

"Doh coutoh ke kxo Krazoa Chamber! (_New leader to the Krazoa Chamber!_)" the other three chanted as they surrounded Slippy.

"What did they say?!" Slippy looked around frantically to find a way around them.

"They want to announce you as their leader in the chamber where the Krazoa is" Krystal tried to not laugh while she talked but it was hard not to.

"What?! But I don't want to go there! Hey!" Slippy couldn't escape the grasp of the Sharpclaw as they carried him off into the next room away from his friends.

Anthony ran to the archway then turned around with his camera he took back from Falco to show he was following for the pictures. He was definitely going to make copies of that event for everyone whether Slippy agreed to it or not.

"He'll be fine, let's just go so I can get my nap" Falco walked off not even caring if there was going to be a dangerous ritual or not.

"We still have to catch up with Tricky to see what Wolf wanted" Fox corrected following him.

"It better be worth it for all this trouble" Madeline whispered to herself as the remaining people left the shrine room.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16: What Wolf Knew

Fox passed by the dinosaurs and his friends to get to Tricky. It was like Tricky himself forgot what he had said about attending the meeting then telling what it was Wolf O'Donnell wanted here in Sauria.

"Hey wait up Tricky!" Fox yelled out and waving one hand in the air to get his attention.

Tricky stopped in his tracks from his path to the city's entrance. He turned around to wait for Fox to run up beside him.

"Tricky did you forget? You said-"

"I remembered, I just thought you were following me there" Tricky turned back around and headed for the entrance.

"Wait real quick!" Samus came up to the two trying to not push anyone over while doing so, "I'm going where ever you do since this our problem"

Tricky looked at Samus then Fox seeing who the first to talk about it. There wasn't any talking but instead Fox gave a nod of agreement then urged Tricky to lead the way.

"Thank you" Samus thanked him as he walked along with Tricky.

"We kocc kxo wiuht kxuk A'm ed mo nuo eloh nakx kne wiojkj. (_Go tell the guard that I'm on my way over with two guests_)" Tricky randomly called out.

Both Samus and Fox had no clue who he was talking to until they caught sight of the shadow of a Cloudrunner flying overhead. It gave some sort of bird-chirping sound in response to Tricky then flew off to the direction of what was Cloudrunner Fortress. It had to be a surprise for Fox since last time he was there Tricky refused to go yet this time he was going. Well at least he assumed so. Samus had no clue though because, well, she had no clue on what was even said.

Tricky didn't say another word as he walked along his own set path that went through the Lightfoot forest.

"So that's where Glent is" a red fox in a Cornerian Army soldier uniform said to himself as he watched Samus, Fox, and Tricky walk into the forest through his binoculars.

He stood atop one of the Walled City's "wall towers" somehow managing to not be seen.

"You won't believe how fierce those Metroids are! Mother Brain always made it look easy to control them!" the Space Pirate from Lightfoot Village exclaimed as he climbed his way to his friend.

"How in Macbeth did you get that hat, George?" the fox looked at the pirate's head where he had a red and white cap on.

"One of the Metroids had it when I dragged the whole swarm into one of those weird Kraza-shine thingies. What'd you Lylat people call them, Clerent?"

"They're called Krazoa shrines and my question is why did you put Metroids in a shrine?"

George whistled as he looked around to avoid answering. His friend kept on giving him a sort-of-stern stare until George gave up.

"Okay, fine! I accidentally entered one and was hunted down by some weird floaty jellyfish guys, no not a Metroid, so I figured that maybe they'd be hunted too. Whenever I got the swarm in there I made sure I deactivated the teleporter so they couldn't get out" George explained.

"Uh… okay then. Anyhow they're going to get Glent so we need to follow along to get him out, 'kay?"

"Fine I'll go back through that treacherous forest"

"Okay, just remember that if this plan goes wrong it's your fault"

"Yeah, yeah"

George walked off the wall and landed on his feet like it was nothing. Clerent, however, had to roll when he reached the bottom yet he walked like he was limping since he landed a bit wrong.

"Hey was that Fox?" Slippy who was at the city's entrance with the other remaining six in his group.

"Must be, though how'd he change clothes so quickly?" Anthony questioned tilting his head like a curious bird.

"Eh, doesn't matter. He's just doing what Fox does. Now can we get back to our ship so I can get some sleep? It'd be nice" Falco waved off their conversation and yawned.

Tricky lead Samus and Fox to a cliff that overlooked Thorntail Hollow; the area that connected most of the paths to other tribe settlements.

"So are you trying to give me flashbacks, Tricky?" Fox said to Tricky while looking around the hollow.

"The city alone would've done so if I wanted to. No, this is the way to get to the fortress A.K.A. by Cloudrunner"

"Cornerian?" a saddled Cloudrunner asked as it walked past the three with another saddled Cloudrunner wearing a green ribbon around its neck.

Fox gave a nod to the first one then waited for their instructions.

"We're doing more dino-riding aren't we?" Samus figured out what was going to happen next.

"Oooo, is this what everyone's talking about? Cool I got to see a leader of a new tribe!" the green ribbon Cloudrunner walked half-way around Samus inspecting her.

Samus was unsure about being looked at the way the Cloudrunner was. It just wasn't usual for someone, even a curious dino, to act like some weird scientist.

"Leave the Furskin alone, we have to do what we were asked"

"Oh right" the curious Cloudrunner backed away from Samus.

Tricky waited for Fox and Samus to climb upon the two Cloudrunners before he nodded them off. He wasn't coming along by obvious reasons.

"Take care!" Tricky called out as the Cloudrunners flew away carrying his new friend and his old friend.

Samus wanted to yell back at him to say "thanks" or a simple "will we see you later?" but couldn't. They were flying away too fast for even one word. From this point only three other people could hear any words at all. "_I hope we do see him later; it was cool to see a living Triceratops_" Samus thought as she turned around to face the front. All there was to see during the ride was the thick layer of rain clouds forming in the short midnight sky.

It was this kind of sky that made Samus remember one her missions she had done some time ago. This was the kind of sky just like Aether when there was the light and dark Aether. Yeah she remembered it more fully; Samus had flown her gunship through Aether's dark sky when one of the violent lightning bolts had stuck her ship. But this wasn't Aether, there wasn't lightning, this sky was calmer and besides, this is the present with a confusing manner at hand. "_Maybe if I'd stop looking at the past I wouldn't have so many issues and I wouldn't have hesitated back at that research facility_" but how could she forget those days when the past is on this planet itself?

She shook those thoughts off her mind to be more focused on what was to be next. If she could piece together what was learned maybe she'd figure what it was this Wolf O'Donnell wanted. "_One, this Wolf doesn't like Star Fox; two, he's a criminal; three, he turned himself in which is unusual; four, Wolf knows there's something here and he might've informed the prince of the Earthwalkers of all people; and five ,those dinosaurs weren't completely surprised by my appearance when humans don't exist here_" Samus listed the facts in her head. Could it be a human was what was so important to see?

"Up there's Cloudrunner Fortress!" Fox yelled out to Samus as they approached a large temple-like structure of light blue atop the mountain above the clouds.

Samus looked carefully at the place when the Cloudrunners brought them closer. She almost thought they were landing in an ancient Earth Japanese garden because of the Cherry Blossom trees that grew alongside the foggy pond.

"Is this based off Japanese gardening?" Samus accidentally asked forgetting the fact that she was the only person that knew what Japan was.

Fox gave her a weird look. He began to wish he asked what human culture was like when he had the chance.

"You're supposed to meet the dungeon guard in the roof area. You do know where right?" the green ribbon Cloudrunner asked as he and his partner started to land in a central area of the fortress.

"Of course I do" Fox told him.

"Well good" both of the Cloudrunners said at the same time as they dumped their riders off rudely then flew off.

Samus and Fox barely managed to land on their feet instead of face from the rude fall. It was almost like the two Cloudrunners didn't like people riding on their backs.

"That wasn't soft" Samus mumbled watching the two fly off.

"Yeah, well I think we're supposed to go this way" Fox walked off towards a tall archway leading to a spiral stairwell going down.

He took a few steps forward to the stairwell before stopping. Fox looked around the place for that one ladder he had used some time ago to reach the roof top.

"Ex, oei uho xoho ouhco! (_Oh, you are here early!_)" a Sharpclaw came up behind the two from where they had walked from.

Fox was the first to react to not only the out-of-nowhere voice, but the fact that the Sharpclaw was a guard.

"Den kubo xam uchouto! (_Now take him already!_)"

"Hey I have rights as a citizen!" someone shouted behind the Sharpclaw.

Right as the guard moved aside two more Sharpclaw guards came along and threw someone at Fox and Samus knocking them down like bowling pins.

"Hey get back here ya disrespectful reptiles!"

"Aww talk about not being soft" was Fox's complaint basically copying what Samus said earlier.

Samus didn't complain due to wanting to know who the Sharpclaws threw at them more than whine.

"Need a hand ma'am?"

She looked up, almost taking the hand held out to her until she saw who it was; a terrier in a Cornerian Army uniform who took Samus' appearance way too naturally. The terrier grabbed her hand anyway and pulled her up to her feet while she was trying to understand why he wasn't also confused. Fox got back to his feet by himself without noticing the oddity.

"You're…err…not surprised?" Samus waited for Fox to notice.

"What? Seriously ma'am? Being a woman is not a surprise-well I mean you because you know-"

"Wait, who are you? And what are you doing here?" Fox saw the terrier but didn't realize Samus' confusion.

"Fox McCloud?! Oh good that those dang Aparoids didn't get ya! How's the rest of your team? They're alive as well?" the terrier seemed to try to skip the main question.

"Listen we're not talking about my friends; I'm asking who you are"

"So they're okay? Cool"

"My goodness you're missing our point now. Who are you and why were you here?" Samus felt as though he was trying to skip his name.

"Who're you though? Never met ya ma'am so-"

"Don't try that; it's extremely cheesy y'know Glent"

The trio looked around to find who was speaking.

"C'mon now, Samus Aran ain't your problem. Be honest with them or it's a bad impression. Get me?"

"Okay, okay I get it! Still don't like ya!" the terrier, Glent, yelled to the walls like a mental person.

Samus caught sight of a person's shadow but it moved away as soon as Glent finished speaking. Who was that? Well whoever it was they certainly didn't want to follow their own advice of being honest. However, Samus still had to wonder if it was a human that was talking since this Glent seemed used to her appearance. That and that person knew her name.

"Since we now know your name all I have to wonder is why you're here and who that was"

"I don't know that weirdo's name! She spent more time on talking than giving a name; never even a hint," Glent crossed his arms, "but I ain't gonna talk no more 'till I'm off this weird planet"

"What makes you say that we're leaving?"

Glent refused to respond for at least two minutes or so keeping things silent between all of them. Talk about breaking advice.

"You've got to be more open to us if you want to have us take you out of here" Samus tapped her feet like a ticking clock.

Glent kept up his quiet game for a bit more not making things any better for him. Some uncountable time later; the toe-tapping finally took his patience.

"Okay fine then if you're so persistent! I think there's somethin' going on in the Federation space now or later! Geez was it so important to make me yell?!"


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17: Federation in Danger

"So…when do they come back? Bets anyone?"

Anthony waited back on the Cape Claw beach along with Krystal, Slippy, and Madeline. Everyone else, except of course Samus and Fox, was inside the _Great Fox_ once more doing whatever it was they were doing. The four had nothing to do so they waited for one hour for the other two to come back.

"I hope they're okay" Krystal stared at the distant Ice Mountain thinking of what possibly they ran into.

"They might have to talk to another dinosaur or even Tricky for info. It could be handy in knowing what we have to do to end this 'Aparoid-Metroid' business before it's too serious" Madeline had a journal with her that she was writing all of her notes about Sauria in. Of course she didn't plan on telling anyone back in the Federation about that journal for reasons.

"We don't have to worry about Fox! He's been down here by himself before and he's here today!" Slippy was trying Anthony's method for not worrying.

"And how long ago was this? Places can change quickly when you don't notice, especially areas with a-"

"Way to ruin my hope Madeline"

"Hey I'm just saying-"

Anthony blocked out Slippy and Madeline with their small argument. He was a bit more concerned for Samus' safety rather than taking sides of a pointless fight that wasn't about her. Where ever she and Fox were, they better come back soon before anyone went into a panic.

"To prove my point why don't you call Fox then and tell me if he responds or not; trust me I'm going to win this bet. Heck I'll bet my shoes for it!" Madeline kicked the sand making it fly, barely, into the others.

"Okay, I bet my-err…wrenches? Yeah my wrenches! I'll win this! Fox doesn't go down easily in places he knows!"

"Oh I can for some new wrenches after mine were confiscated. Long story"

"Hey guys he's-" Krystal tried to point out something before their bet went too far.

Slippy started to call Fox instead receiving a loud static sound from his side of the call and the other from-

"Slippy I'm right here! That won't work when we're right next to each other like this!" Fox; the other side was not even that faraway.

Both Slippy and Fox quickly turned off their comms to end the awful noise. You could bet that even the Hightop nearby was happy for the end of the static sound.

"What took you guys forever? Seriously we were a bit worried…sorta worried" Anthony rubbed his ear with the palm of his hand to ensure it wasn't bleeding.

"Since he did technically answer I'm owed a nice pair of shoes!" Slippy shouted out to rub it in Madeline's face.

"Oh come on! These are my only pair!"

"Should've thought about that before you betted!"

"Ugh, fine"

"What were you guys doing here? I feel a bit concerned…" Samus just had to figure out what was the exact bet that Slippy and Madeline were arguing over.

"Err…nothing concerning except that Madeline may need to buy a new pair of shoes when we get back home" Anthony answered.

"Yeah I caught that part from standing here; it's my specialty apparently around here"

"Speaking of home-you guys need to come up to the bridge for the latest update and it doesn't look too good," Adam came out of nowhere making almost everyone jump, "oh and bring that guy up too if he's with you Samus"

Anthony, Madeline, Slippy, and even Krystal didn't notice Glent who was hiding behind Samus. He was standing there remaining silent since he had nothing to say to anyone; that or he just didn't want to mouth off to the human group standing with him as it was a guess from his face and arm-crossing.

"What now? I swear if it's Wolf trying to lead us somewhere I'm going to personally face him and strangle him. No one's gonna go against that"

"Fox! We aren't hunting Wolf down since he's in custody and that's what he deserves! You can stop there!" Krystal burst losing her usual calm nature.

Adam walked back to the ship as his way of saying it'll be told there. The group just had to notice him walking off to know that. It would have taken forever for that if Samus wasn't pointing it out to the other six.

The big group (now excluding Glent since they dropped him off in a "guest room") finally got to the bridge where Peppy, Adam, Falco, and Rob were waiting. A few things to notice were that Adam had a bit of a worried expression, Peppy appeared to think of something, and Falco; well he was being Falco. What else?

"So what is it? Must be important right?" shoeless Madeline asked.

Adam nodded.

"It's important to at least some of us. Not too long ago I managed to pick up a distress call; a Galactic Federation coded distress. One that's only used when an unknown enemy appears and attacks the fleet"

"How many times would that be? Three? Nine?" Falco started to talk in his "sleep".

"I hope you realize we've had the same problems before you spoke" Peppy gave Falco the glare to not be so rude; when did it ever work?

"So what exactly did the signal say? Do we really need to drag these guys into Federation issues when they aren't even close to what's familiar there?" Samus had to know what the issue was now since last time she could handle the situation all by herself.

"I could only get certain parts from this area of space since we are so far away of course. At least I was able to get the important details down from it like, 'giant purple bugs many of a variety' and 'few dark colored Metroids attacking both ground troops and space troops on Norion'. Familiar isn't it, Lady?"

Norion? Again? This had to be at least the second time she had to go save that place and somehow the Federation was in serious distress after all the time they had to improve the security there. Well, at least it wasn't too bad of a place to go to and there was no Space Pirates there this time 'round.

"Norion? That's a weird name for a planet" Slippy said his thought out loud by accident.

"Oh yeah not like Aquas is a weird name for a planet, and Venom, and Solar" Madeline was still angry enough from earlier to shout that out.

"Cool it down, geez. Is no one wondering how in Corneria we're even going to get to this 'Norion' from here? We'll never make it there by normal travel…what?" Falco noted his teammates looking at him like he was the dumbest one there.

"Falco have you been with us within the years? Have you forgotten? Wow that's impressive; Slippy you officially are no longer are the weirdest member of this team"

"Hey wait one second!"

"What are you saying Fox? Some of us aren't exactly from…uh what system is this again?" Samus was embarrassed to forget the name of the solar system.

"Gates; easiest way to travel and we happen to know someone who can help out on that"

The Star Fox team all turned to Slippy who knew exactly what they wanted.

"Fine I'll go call my dad, but you guys have to explain it!"


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18: Figuring the Way to Norion (Part 1)

"So you really think that Beltino's gonna allow us to use the Orbital Gate?"

Falco and Fox were chatting in the Hanger Bay where they knew barely anyone was going to walk in on them at this current time.

"I just happen to know him better than you okay? As long as we tell him the right things Slippy's dad will be okay with it"

"Greeaat, you've got him calling just for an unlikely situation. Don't you know that last time we used it was probably the only time we'll actually get to use that gate? How else were we going to get to the Aparoid home world then?"

"Falco this might be important to get there as fast as possible and there's no other possible way we can get there"

They stopped their conversation as Samus walked into the bay. She didn't notice the two and carried on to her ship that was still where it was when she first got there. There was a reason 'barely anyone would walk in' was said.

"What's she up to? Wait, didn't you have Krystal keep her busy in the bridge?" Falco, for the first time possibly in his life, felt a little worried.

"I did; how'd she possibly get away from there?"

Samus walked into her gunship once more to find something she had meant to get earlier. With everything she had to learn about Lylat and the Star Fox team it made it hard for her to remember to grab the picture. There was a feeling Samus had started to have when she met that Glent. Some things began to make no sense after the Saurian trip. Probably less sense than any other time she could remember.

She made a mental list of no-sense things; Commander Frank had gone out to meet her when he never visited people even when handing things over, Adam's picture was still in his old office when it was cleared not too long after his "death", her A.I. Adam had mysteriously stopped responding after leaving Daiban, and the fox that broke into the base she had left. They all had to be connected somehow right?

"Lookin' for somethin'? Yeah I can guess that you'll say 'heck yeah I am now who're ya?' Ain't tellin' the last part ma'am for certain. Just how I roll"

Samus frantically looked around to find who was talking. She didn't see a person but did notice that something had a small shadow in the fairly lighted area. Was this person trying to be invisible?

"Who's there? Are you that same person from the fortress?"

Samus swore she heard a bit of giggle from somewhere.

"Not that hard to guess isn't it? No worry for what I bet you're thinkin'; I'm only here to tell ya something I know you'll want to know. Just promise that you won't tell the others"

One thing to note was that last time Samus encountered this person she (which was a guess from her voice) was telling Glent to be honest to them. Was this person trying to act like she's on Samus' side or was she actually with her? Well if she wasn't a threat to Samus why was she trying to hide her identity?

"First you'll answer my questions before I make any promises. Why is it you're trying to hide yourself from me if you're supporting me?"

The shadow person gave a sigh and obvious footsteps somewhere near Samus.

"I can answer that, I go by multiple fake names that are important for me to tell ya some things. Until I know ya aren't gonna go run off and tell the police, any police, about my appearance I'll be out of luck and you'll never get your necessary info," there was a short pause where she must've walked somewhere near the pilot chair judging by the shadow, "I've heard your recent plans and where ya need to go. You'll need me surely for this. I'm experienced with Aparoids and the Federation Military so I'll have some things ya need in order to successfully counter attack once you're at Norion. Heck I'll actually meet you face-to-face there if you prove yourself right"

Samus thought about her words. How can this person have experience with Aparoids and talk about the Federation? If this person was lying then how can anyone explain how she was cloaking which was exactly what the Federation special troops had with the exact same flaw? Samus was sure Lylat couldn't have had the same thing if Fox never used such a thing when she first boarded.

"Okay if you say it's so important. What do I exactly need to know?"

"I hope ya have a good memory for this. Anyhow first thing is that Glent didn't travel alone and last time I met them there were three of them total. The two you haven't met are his friends and if he's not talking to you he must know that they're coming to rescue him. The way you and Fox dragged Glent from the fortress must make them assume you're taking him back to the Cornerian Army and they'll do anything to keep that from happening. Advice is don't kill one and please keep Fox and Peppy from being upset with the other one; the both of them didn't mean to tamper with anyone else's feelings"

"What do you mean?"

"Next thing to know is that the code ya guys received was an edited version that a hidden member within Federation ranks sent who made sure that Adam and the team got that part of it. The true message hasn't been sent yet as far as my contact tells. Our estimate until the true invasion of Norion is about at least a day or so hopefully two if there's true luck. Expect Madeline to receive a message from an unknown sender to update certain things"

She was openly giving this information? It didn't sound too important as she tried to make it sound.

"What was important for me know? This doesn't seem like much since I've got more questions than answers"

"I may have a clue of what may be heading to Norion but I can't say as of now in case that info is false. Just keep in mind that if one enemy has a hard to find weak point just holler 'Danette' 'kay? I'll give a hint, or accidentally kill it for ya"

The whole time she spoke the shadow moved towards the way out of the gunship to leave Samus behind. The person let herself out before Samus could notice.

"Why Danette?" Samus tried to get at least one answer.

There was no response telling her that she was now truly alone. The random conversation almost made Samus forget her original point of going into there anyway. Whoever it was from before, she was waiting for Samus to retrieve Adam's picture and in fact was standing near where it was placed; right underneath the pilot's seat. Must be coincidence that she was near there since this person never said to grab it; maybe it wasn't.

"Samus, did you get what you were looking for?" Krystal was outside waiting for her.

Samus picked the picture up by its frame and looked at it. Somehow she almost felt like crying when she saw Ian in the image.

"Yeah I found it, I didn't get anyone upset did I?"

Krystal shook her head. She knew what Samus meant by upsetting someone. Fox purposely had her keep Samus busy so she wouldn't cause trouble and Krystal let her walk around on her own.

"Fox would understand why you would come here, it's important to both you and Adam since you both had to suffer the loss of Ian and you're both in there with him"

"_I never mentioned Ian one bit to her or about his death. How did she know?_" Samus tried to think of how Krystal always guessed her accurately even when they first ran into each other.

"Slippy said that his father wanted to talk about our travel choice personally so we're going to leave Sauria shortly in about an hour and a half. If you wanted to see the beach one last time it was recommended that we do so since we may not come back"

Samus nodded and walked toward the way to the outside. For now she was going to have to forget the conversation she had for a short time.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19: Figuring the Way to Norion (Part 2)

Fox and Krystal said bye to Tricky within the remaining hour and thirty minutes. Anthony was taking his final pictures of the place with Slippy tagging along with him just for the fun of it. Falco decided that he wanted sleep so he went to his room without saying any word to anyone. Madeline had her journal still with her and she was writing every detail of the planet down along with things Tricky told her. Samus stood on the edge of the water watching a Hightop catch fish since she was bored.

Adam made sure to count everyone from habit. The only person he didn't count yet was Peppy but he never really did want to head outside at the moment. As much as he knew about these people he really didn't know what they thought of him, Samus, Anthony, and Madeline. Slippy seemed to be fine with them according to the fact that he was in many conversations with Madeline and Anthony especially. Fox, though, always glared at Anthony when he was near Krystal and tried to have Samus in certain areas at certain times though he didn't seem to mind Adam or Madeline.

Since there was about forty minutes remaining, Adam headed back in to see if there was anything he could do while the seven outside did whatever they wanted. He didn't feel like standing on the beach like Samus since he really didn't find that relaxing as some people would say. When you spent most of your life in the military, you act military so beaches never fit the ideal vacation. Besides, there were more things to focus on rather than messing around. Someone had to be serious around here.

"Not feeling like joining the others?"

Peppy was waiting at the elevator where Adam was headed. He'd been there for awhile waiting for it to even work.

"I don't see a point in wasting time. I'm sure you might have a need for me seeing how Fox likes to distract Samus"

"Maybe I'd know if this thing was working," Peppy pointed to the elevator door, "it stopped working at least half an hour ago and Rob claimed that it would be working by now. Sometimes I swear we really need Slippy to make sure he's not broken or something"

Adam didn't need to be a mechanic to notice that the lights clearly showed that the elevator was stuck on their floor. Either the door was stuck or something was in need of repair.

"Want me to get Slippy then?"

"That would definitely help, he's more help than Rob right now"

As if he was summoned by magic, Slippy ran past them screaming, "Don't worry I've got it! I'll check!" Was he already bored with the outside or something? Hopefully it didn't matter why he ran to them, hopefully.

"That's the fastest I've seen him run" Peppy commented watching Slippy run to the door leading to another hall.

"While he's doing that I'd like to ask you something" Adam mentally noted how they were the only ones in the hangar.

"Don't ask for favors or things personal"

"Fortunate for you it's neither. Before we arrived here, Madeline had come to me asking if I was travelling with any other person that was also onboard. Of course I questioned why she would ask that to me privately when Madeline told me she'd encountered a woman in the maintenance room and she wasn't sure if I knew her"

"What's the question exactly?"

"I didn't meet any woman before and definitely wasn't traveling with one. Is there a member of your team we're not aware of?"

Peppy didn't speak a word. Adam patiently waited knowing he might've been either trying to remember or thinking of what to say.

"Maybe it's Katt Monroe, she does like to follow Falco around a lot"

"Katt or not, I still think we should be cautious in case we have a major threat with us"

The both of them kept silence between them after the brief conversation. Adam had no idea about this person on board and secretly hoped that Madeline was making things up. Peppy, however, knew who Adam was talking about.

It had to be at least three hours since the _Great Fox 2_ left Sauria for the Cornerian Orbital Gate. Or it was four hours since. What did Clerent know? He didn't count time anymore so e had no clue.

"Do you think Glent's here even? If he's not then this is a waste of time. We can find Theodore without him" George whispered to Clerent.

Clerent didn't answer. He kept on watching the door for any chance Star Fox or the humans walked into the room they were hiding in.

"Oh come on, I don't like Glent anyway. He's obnoxious, very obnoxious" George continued on about forgetting Glent.

"We can't leave him behind, George"

George ignored Clerent's comment and went on.

"I bet that he's got himself in some serious trouble with that girl. With her I feel we're getting nowhere in finding him"

Clerent understood what George couldn't quite say. He was talking about how a girl requesting to be called "Danette" claimed that if the three of them helped her she'd help them find Clerent's brother. "_I know who took him, it's just where I don't know about_" Danette had told them. It was more of they got her information about Aparoids in Lylat and Metroids in the Federation while they were barely told a thing about where Theodore might just be. Clerent felt that she was just trying to use them for whatever she was up to.

"Yeah I guess that's how it is" George didn't notice his friend partially listening to his long rant.

"Huh?"

"Well whatever it is I think we both need to avoid that Adame Malka-something since, well, you know. Recommendation, don't be wearing sunglasses for awhile"

"Don't need to be yelling that out"

He understood that George liked to yell out his thoughts often, but he didn't need to point out something he'd done. It was one thing to be mistaken for someone else yet being mistaken for someone that was important to some people never really ended well.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20: Figuring the Way to Norion (Part 3)

It felt as though there was barely anytime to be alone anymore even though it had been past twenty-four hours since they met Samus, Anthony, and Madeline (Adam didn't count since Fox and Krystal had at least known him for twice that time). Fox guessed that the time everyone else was tired was the time to be alone in the break room. As much as some conversation with the others seemed good, he preferred to just be by himself to think things through. Especially during this situation was it good to sort through any thoughts.

"Never sleep too? At least I'm not a loner" Anthony somehow found his way during "night" to the break room.

If he wasn't announcing himself there, he probably would've been accidentally shot in defense or something of the like.

"I assumed you would be with the others" Fox tried to not say or mumble, "_Or with Krystal_"

Anthony shrugged while he walked toward him. He knew that Fox didn't know about him being completely used to the military sleep schedule.

"I'm still in service y'know, the only reason I ran into you guys is because I ran off to find Adam"

"Is Adam an important politician back where you come from? It seems you all have respect for him"

Anthony laughed.

"He wouldn't be that good at that kind of thing. Just don't tell him I said that. He was a commander, strict but good. He led my platoon on a mission some time ago and that's when we assumed him dead, well except for the three of us"

"Leader of your platoon…assumed dead that mission…? Wait wouldn't that mean you're not supposed to be here? From what Adam had told me all of his men were dead"

Definitely told by Adam, he had no clue that Anthony was fine until then. Adam himself was confused on how Anthony was standing there the day before but he asked that question when they weren't surrounded by the Star Fox team.

"He 'died' after I 'died' so he didn't know that when I was launched off a platform there was a miraculous save," Anthony made air quotes, "that's why he said I shouldn't be here. Sadly, the others weren't as lucky as us"

Fox didn't quite understand the "miraculous save" part Anthony was saying. Well it was probably the late-night-lack-of-sleep to blame for that part.

"So is that something you tell every woman you meet? Must impress them very well" he was also too tired to remember that inner monologue wasn't very affective when you're half-awake.

Anthony didn't feel hurt from those words surprisingly. In truth he expected that sentence sometime soon from Fox.

"I get it; you do like Krystal but don't know if it's the same for her. I say that it's not hard to guess since every single time I talk to her I can see you glaring"

Fox was more awake now. Did Anthony already know about his jealously?

"Dude you have to admit it to her instead of imagining asking her out. Now may not be the time but you never know if there's someone else that also has an eye on her" Anthony wasn't exactly the type to give dating advice but it did seem more truthful than the advice Falco tried to give.

"How can I not know you're the other guy?"

Anthony sighed. This was definitely the most he'd talked about relationships.

"I just like good talk and jokes and besides, I don't have an interest in her. There's someone else I like that maybe I should actually follow my own words on"

No wonder he came up with this. He was planning on asking someone else out and he himself was also nervous. Even so Fox still couldn't tell if it was lies when he said he had an interest in someone else.

"There's never a time, either Falco's nearby to laugh, people I don't know are near, or she's talking to someone else. Don't forget that there's high chance Krystal's going to reject me, I mean what kind of girl like her wouldn't have a like in more 'cool' guys?" Fox felt like he wanted to get out of that conversation he accidentally started.

"Bit dramatic much? At least you don't have an Aerith-Zack love story right now"

Fox had no clue what he meant.

"What haven't you ever heard of Final Fantasy seve-oh wait" it took time but Anthony realized that the game never would've come out in Lylat.

"_I wonder how that story went…_" Fox had to wonder. Whatever this "Final Fantasy" something was, it was slowly turning the conversation away from dating.

"We should both be heading to bed. Knowing Rob lately we're probably only an hour away when he said three" Fox took the opportunity to leave.

Anthony agreed with him and headed out. Everyone had to be ready for whatever was going to happen within the few hours. If Beltino was going to allow them to use the gate then that meant they'd have to be ready for the battle at Norion.

This had to be the first time Rob actually on-time with his time prediction. Only downside was that meant three hours to get to Norion on time was wasted.

"Better than fourteen days right?" Slippy commented to Krystal.

The whole Star Fox team waited for Beltino in the Hangar Bay since he said he was going to meet them on the _Great Fox 2_. As much as the team was excited to see him again they were nervous about Samus and the others being seen since they were hiding in the same room as them. That and Beltino seemed to easily figure things out no matter how hard people tried to hide things. Slippy and Fox knew that fact for certain.

"Hello again everyone! You didn't come to drop Slippy off did you?" Beltino walked toward them while adjusting his glasses.

"I wish that wer-" Slippy stomped on Falco's foot for him to shut up.

Everyone saw that coming from him. No matter what the situation, Falco was always up for getting rid of Slippy.

"I'm talking to the right people at least. Anyway what's so urgent that you need to use our gate once more?"

Out of all the questions to expect, none of them really practiced for that. Which if you think about it, or not, that should've been the first thing to even think of being ready for.

"Urgent situation, we were asked to head out somewhere very far and as soon as possible. It might take months" Fox said for them after a few awkward seconds.

Samus and Madeline watched from the catwalk and honestly, they both had no clue how this was going to end. This was going to be the quickest way to get to Norion and it appeared that there might be more trouble here than the situation there.

"Think they might have an advantage in knowing him?" Madeline whispered over to Samus.

"I don't think knowing someone isn't going to get ready of their suspicion; you know how that goes. That and I think we should be more ready for what will happen after Norion" Samus watched Fox and Beltino continue discussing things.

Things seemed fine for now. At least there wasn't yelling from anyone.

"I kinda forget about that fact, what are we to do about them? Either way this team's gonna be found by any Federation person and we'll get ourselves in very serious trouble for breaking majority of the rules"

"I say we think of a good defense"

"Samus, we don't trust them ourselves very well so how're we going to build a good defense for them?"

That was one fact that was easily forgotten; at least for Samus at this kind of time.

"We could request watching them ourselves," Samus remembered one more fact, "wait we're in our own kind of trouble so that won't happen"

"You don't say"

They went back to a brief silence only to better hear the talk below them. As far as Samus and Madeline heard, it was still going well for Fox. Maybe he did have an advantage for knowing Beltino, or he just knew how to trick people.

"Hearing this is sure believable enough, but are you certain that you recruiter isn't part of those forces?" Beltino started the "last stage" questions as Madeline called them.

He was going to double-check that they weren't going to be ambushed or any of the sort. Also it was a guess that he wanted to make sure that he wasn't being tricked which he was without truly knowing.

"I know him personally, he isn't the one to give false calls or raise false flags" Krystal put her fake words together so well, Samus and Madeline were uncertain if they were lied to the whole time.

"And I know you as well, that should be good enough. I'll give the message when we're ready for you guys"

"Thanks dad" Slippy barely said as Beltino walked away.

The team left too without even calling out to the two above. They must've been uncertain if anyone was listening in to them since they came.

"So Princess, what'd you think of that conversation? I say it went well considering how there was no tickets" Anthony quietly crept to the two woman giving quite a fright to them.

"Are you trying to kill me young? No wonder that guy didn't see you" Madeline whispered hold her chest in exaggeration.

"My apologies, so what do you think they're going to have us do?"

"I'd say give them coordinates, it only makes sense right?"

"Close enough, being about trying to get there" almost surprisingly, Peppy was right behind them since Anthony came over.

"How many people want to give me a heart attack in one day?!" Madeline continued her exaggerating act.

It wasn't too hard to guess what was wanted. Judging from his sentence, he expected the usual visit to the bridge for the next step of the plan. Samus knew it. She got up from the ground and waited for her friends to follow suit.

"First time I didn't have to explain myself" Peppy turned around and walked away.

The remaining looked and shrugged at each other. This was definitely going to be the weirdest introduction to a battle they'd seen yet.

"I think we should come along don't you think?"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21: "Just Like Before, Or Like It"

The four humans had to admit it; this "gate" that the team talked about, but never really mentioned, was fascinating even though they'd seen something like it before. If you allowed a young child see the gate most likely he/she would call it a gigantic green-circle. Samus was impressed that Lylat could manage to warp whenever they wanted but somehow they had never discovered the Federation by accident that way.

"From here on out we'll have no choice but to trust your best judgment of the situation. Hopefully you know this place real well" Fox said to no one directly.

Everyone saw that coming. Kinda too obvious that he wouldn't know the way around there so he'd depend on what the four had to say about the place. Samus knew this was the best time to prove that they're on the same side because of that; likewise for them.

"I don't think Madeline and I have been there enough to know, so I'd say Adam and Samus are your best bet" Anthony said.

"_Just what I wanted for early Christmas; more people to rely on mostly me_" Samus sarcastically thought. She was going to have to live with it at this point since it was either let a planet burn (figuratively and hopefully not literal) or save the galaxy once more. The non-burning option seemed pretty nice.

"Before we leap into a death zone, think I can get that picture of Slippy being kidnapped by Sharpclaws? It'll be perfect for that empty wall in my room" it certainly wasn't hard to guess who that was.

"Couldn't find a printer here, sorry," Anthony and Falco went shoulder-to-shoulder with one another before whispering on, "I know there's one at the military base so I'll get you a copy there"

Madeline walked toward the window in the bridge to watch the end of Lylat space and the start of familiar space. As much as she thought that there would be flying colors like in old Sci-Fi films when gigantic ships warped, there was none. In fact it was hard to tell the difference between any of the spaces. That was one thing to scratch off her list things to find out.

"It would be best if we stopped here, even I don't know how people will react when they see you guys and even I" Adam said just as the gate closed behind them.

"Already planned that out, it just takes Rob awhile to remember" Fox said before Peppy.

Those who were still looking out the window during the time noticed the ship slowing down before the others. It wasn't a case of Rob forgetting, it was just he was being careful about it.

"Looks like I don't need to be strict around here" Samus heard Adam mumble.

His statement was very noticeable. As much as these guys were jokers, they were at least serious even if the slightest bit. Thinking about it, it really didn't take too much to be more serious than any new military recruit.

"Gah!" Falco screamed out randomly falling out of his chair in some shock.

"What now, did you see yourself in the mirror?" was Madeline's snide question.

"Oh _yeah_, I saw myself," he rolled his eyes, "no I think someone's phone went off by my foot"

If he was startled by that then he was sleeping over any possible talk for the plan. Not exactly the best of ideas.

"Who has a phone anymore?" Anthony said to cover up the fact that it was his, "Well since no one is claiming it I might as well check it then"

He slowly moved over by Falco in a terrible act of pretending to not own it. Everyone stared at him weirdly just because he was taking time to do so. Anthony ignored that of course and continued on just until he found the phone that had stopped buzzing by that time.

"You know it's not exactly hard to tell that you're the owner of that device, Anthony. You're the only one who still owns a phone that I know of" Samus told him so he could cut the act.

"I was hoping you'd forget, anyway I thought I turned the internet off…huh. Interesting…"

"What?"

"Here, it says it's sent to Madeline but I got it"

Anthony walked his way back to the others while staring at the phone's small screen. How'd he get a text sent to Madeline? It had to be one of those common glitches that the older phones usually got, what else was there to explain? After some time thinking about it, Madeline remembered.

"Wait I get it, when they were gonna confiscate my phone I set my number as a side number on Anthony's device so I could still call my family"

"Is that why someone sent me random text asking where the pie went?"

She stood there awkwardly.

"Uh…yes…"

"Hate to break the news guys, but we're not exactly in the best of times to have that casual conversation" Fox reminded the two that they weren't alone in the room.

"Oh, of course; uh hey, Anthony, can I check it please?" Anthony handed the phone over to Madeline, "thanks…uh…you guys can just continue on the plan"

She walked over to the bridge door to check whatever the message was without disturbing the others. The few seconds in between her path were longer in Madeline's head. Was it her mom again? Maybe it was the court announcing her personal freedom once more. What was she thinking; it always went "once a criminal, always a criminal".

Didn't help that the first thing everyone knew her by was that charge. That had to be the biggest embarrassment anyone could get.

"Now let's try to remember everything we've figured so far-" Adam started as Madeline reached the door.

The others continued on with their recap of events and such as she had her back on the wall reading the text. More like an e-mail though, it was very lengthy and-sent by _Unknown_?

'_This is Madeline Bergman readin' this yeah? Well whoever this is I hope ya are a bookworm or somethin' like that. Whatever 'bout that, I have a recommendation for ya so listen-or read really: the Aparoids that are at Norion as of my recent knowledge aren't just strictly ground/air types. Trust me they're more of a variety than you'd like. Yeah it ain't a joke; there really is more than one type, 'kay? One more thing, I have a feelin' that you're gonna be in one big issue when this battle finally settles and last thing ya need is more trouble. Try to keep any surprise guests from exitin' the Great Fox while any of this occurs just for less of a problem, for now. Hopefully I can handle that part on my own so you fellas don't need to. Well that's 'bout all I'm gonna say so ya know, good luck.'_

Who sent this? Figuring who was the confusing part since of course they happened to know about her, Apariods, and Norion. Just when Madeline wanted fewer mysteries this occurs. Was this person nearby listening in to everything they were talking about to know about Norion? Could be, or maybe it was one of those mercenaries she was stuck with.

Maybe it was Fox attempting to scare her away or some sort. Slippy couldn't have since he seemed too happy for her to be around. Falco just had no care who was around so he was definitely off the "suspect list". If what Madeline heard was right, Krystal was a telepath so she could've easily made some weird image in head of a person, but then that would mean the scare should've been more convincing. Last person was Peppy, and he was the most weird-acting among them all.

His own team had no idea where he went to when Madeline and the other two first came aboard, he was really upset by Fox meeting Adam, he stayed behind when everyone left back on Sauria, and what else?

"Hopefully we can get contact soon or there'll be more issues" Krystal said aloud over back with the group.

Madeline pretended to keep reading the screen on Anthony's phone. There was one thing about Peppy but she couldn't recall. Something to do with curiosity wasn't it?

"Yeah, I bet they wouldn't like Slippy's ugly face" Falco responded to Krystal.

That was it! He never looked at them in any sort of curiosity like the others! The time when Samus, Anthony, and Madeline were sitting in the bridge Fox had walked by while staring at them while Peppy seemed like he knew humans enough. Now that Madeline thought about it, the guy that they got from Sauria acted the same too. That and Samus had said that he had a sort-of friendly conversation with some unseen person. Maybe it was-

"Hey Madeline, finally able to join us or is it very lengthy?"

She didn't see who it was that asked, but it was definitely certain that everyone wondered if she was reading any text.

"Yeah, what'd I miss then?"

"Lectures" Falco mumbled quietly enough for only him to hear.

"Stuff we already know, it would be nice if you can add something" Fox said.

"Let's see now… wouldn't it be good if we started to think about the current situation there and our equipment since these, uh, Aparoids could've changed just like the Metroids?" Madeline tried to hope that it wasn't already mentioned by someone earlier.

"Part of the lecture" Falco forgot he wasn't mumbling still.

"I'd say simple enough of a plan; we take the air and you guys can take the ground!" Slippy's tone showed heavy signs of uncertainty. He probably knew what would actually happen in the air.

"I would have to say that'd happen anyway, I have no clue on how to fly those ships of yours, or anything that flies really" Anthony made a point.

"My gunship doesn't have any real weapons on it. Yes I do wonder why it's called a gunship without guns" Samus quickly said straight after Anthony.

"I would highly recommend Madeline staying aboard. Ground or air, the enemy won't be easy to handle without extra help from the side" Adam was looking straight at her.

He didn't have to explain it at all. Madeline had no combat experience unlike everyone else and she was possibly worse than Slippy if anyone was to test her on battle. That one incident was the blame for that.

"Y-yeah, I understand. Wasn't looking forward to meeting giant bugs anyway" there was no way to not be embarrassed. What an example she was for life decisions leading to mistakes.

"You won't be alone gramps!" Falco actually paid attention to something, kinda new.

"Before anything, I want to see if I can find any extra details about the battle" Slippy walked off towards an empty computer.

The rest separated too going to different areas on the bridge. Madeline remained in her spot deciding what she could do. Well, if she wanted to figure out more about who she suspected she'd need to have a close friendship with someone. Her luck was that Slippy was already trying to be her friend and he was going to be the easiest to talk compared to the others. She determined that helping him out would be her best chance.

"So then, what can I do to help out?" Madeline surprised Slippy.

"Oh, really?" Slippy was surprised that someone actually wanted to help, "Maybe you can help me with this?"

His screen displayed the long, broken S.O.S Adam had received. She took it that Slippy had high hopes of learning something from the desperate message by finding the whole message.

"I guess taking the extra-credit programming course in college was actually a good idea" Madeline said to herself as she took Slippy's place and began typing.

Samus was happy to see Madeline finally getting along with someone other than her. It could mean that there was someone to completely trust here, or Madeline just wanted her shoes back (she was still barefoot from her bet). Meanwhile, Samus couldn't find a way to learn more about Fox since he purposely found a way to talk about Norion instead. He was just one of two people that were hard to talk to. Just because of that she decided that socializing should be less of a priority than knowing what was going to occur if they couldn't figure anything out soon.

"So what would you do if someone like me were captured during this time?" Samus just had to question if Fox was a friend or not. His answer would decide that.

"I don't know, but since you haven't stabbed my back yet maybe help you out" he was a friend then.

"Likewise for me"

They remained silent like usual and went back to observing. What else could they do? There was nothing they could do to find out about the Aparoids.

"Yes! I've fixed it! Oh and you too" Slippy's excitement came out of nowhere.

"Yeah, of course, err, sorry guys" Madeline apologized for him.

"What's fixed?" everyone said at the same time.

"Jinx, ha! Now you all owe me sodas!" Falco called it before anyone noticed.

"First, I don't think you'd like sodas from here, and second, we fixed the message Adam got. Downside is that there wasn't anything new, upside is we know why we can't contact anyone"

"It was an automatic distress call sent out in a serious state of emergency of what we can already tell what." Slippy still had his pride of being useful for something.

"Wouldn't that mean that there was something new after all?" Peppy ruined the moment for him.

Both Slippy and Madeline stared at each other in a sort of embarrassment. Maybe they should've taken the time to think their sentences more thoroughly.

"Yeah, let's just forget about that. One more thing to add is that the generators ar-"

"Down? If that's right then that means I have to fix them again. _So much fun_" Samus didn't want to fix the three generators _again_. It was a pain enough the first time.

"And yes, they're down. If it's such a pain for you I can repair them!" for Slippy, it had to be nothing.

"Slippy, only these four are aware of us" Krystal pointed out.

"Oh…but it does sound like fun though…"

"Maybe Slippy could be useful; he's familiar with Aparoids and has more mechanical skills than all of us. The main problem we have is trying to figure out how he can move around without a random base worker or soldier seeing him" Adam wasn't trying to make Slippy happy; he was just telling his thought.

"I can sneak around easily!"

"Says the guy who had to be rescued on Titania, twice" Just like Peppy, Fox ruined Slippy's pride.

"And calls for help every three seconds" Falco joined in

"Come on guys! This is different, really!"

"That one rescue from Titania _was_ a sneaking mission"

"Okay now, let's settle that shall we? Samus?" Anthony wanted Samus to get everyone back onto the original subject.

What was her opinion on the subject? Honestly, she had no clue. She could keep Slippy away from the risk and go against Adam's judgment, or take the dangerous path that could eventually lead to a stronger friendship with the team. If she was to let him on the surface then that'll mean that he's completely her responsibility and if he accidentally dies, well things wouldn't go so well.

"Just like before, or like it. Fixing generators except not me this time; you better be a better listener than pilot" Samus had to hope that her words were right.

"I will, I will! Just tell me where they are and it'll be fixed in no time!" Slippy was happy he was useful for once. Now he could prove to Falco that he had a true meaning to be on the team.

"We're going to have one heck of a fun time aren't we? Just don't ask me to save ya Slip'"


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22: When Aparoids Arrive…

"Lock all the remaining electric rooms! We can't let them get there!" One frantic Federation soldier with platoon armor yelled to the group of mixed soldiers.

No one had an exact idea what was actually going on, the first thing was some loud noise then next thing they knew they all were being ordered around in an unorderly fashion. Majority of this crowd was transfers from the academy while the rest consisted of platoon men taking advantage of the new people.

"Man they can't lay off can they?" one guy commented to his pal.

"Of course they won't 'lay off', these men want to be the higher grade fellas. Not fair to us unless we can prove we're no random group of newbies" a brunette girl in the traditional green uniform said to the two men.

Unlike the other people in the room, she had more of an idea of what was going on. She had someone to thank for that.

"Move a bit faster now! Whatever those things were they're gonna blow us up if we don't seal those rooms!" his voice was trembling.

If only he could know that sealing the rooms would mean nothing. She was going to try to keep these guys alive until she could hear more of her aunt.

"Is that fear I hear from you? Aren't ya supposed to be the 'expert' here among us?" the brunette was going to take advantage of the confusion for the lead.

"Fear? What? Nah, get back to sealing the rooms! Do you want to die?!" he was more afraid now.

"No, of course I don't want to die, but I know that your orders are meaningless. If we can get communications back up then we can better organize ourselves against the enemy"

"You've never seen one of those things like I have! Fall into line!" everyone stopped to watch this argument.

"I happened to have seen one, how nasty it was to know that it had corrupted the mind of a fellow soldier causing him to turn on us. Maybe you've seen it too, or maybe it's the fact that you've seen one impale one of us before it ate their insides?" she was successfully making the platoon guy very terrified.

"I-I-I-"

"So you have, never once thought about how we could keep more people from being affected by one simple message?"

He kept still and quiet. The crowd ignored the loud noise and shaking ground just to hear this interesting conclusion.

"Wh-what do you know a-about these-these, things?"

"Enough to demote you from favor based off our survival possibilities"

"What is it you want us to do if it's so?!"

She could've laughed.

"Simple plan, Watson"

"That doesn't look so pretty" Falco said over the comms.

Samus had to agree, the damage had already been done to Norion and it was visible from space. She'd seen the planet in a serious state before but never as bad as this.

"I've never seen this much damage…craters don't fit that place" Slippy commented from behind Samus.

She'd zoned out and didn't realize. Slippy was only in her gunship just because they didn't want anyone to follow him down on the planet. Though it wasn't attention to Slippy that worried rather Adam's last-minute decision to come along was the worry. He's recorded dead yet he thought it wouldn't matter here. It would.

"Please keep Slippy in one piece okay Samus? We aren't going to lose our best mechanic for no reason" Peppy sounded concerned over the comm.

Why wouldn't he be concerned? He wasn't exactly fond of the idea of letting Slippy on the surface, no one really was.

"I'll be fine! Trust me!" Slippy just didn't get it.

"_Right_, he'll be 'fine'. _Sure_" then there was Falco's sarcasm.

This would definitely be one interesting mission or whatever anyone could call this operation. The most Samus knew that wouldn't be different was the soldiers greeting her like a big invincible hero. She was anything but that.

"We'll have to leave your guys' channel in case someone tries to link us with you when we get the generators up again. Try to avoid damaging Federation ships as much as possible so that there will be no reason against you" Adam announced to the others over comms.

Seemed a bit funny how he didn't want them to be seen while he wasn't in much worry of being seen himself. Did he expect to be respected like before? That wouldn't match Adam at all.

"I know that part, I guess some people would find a reason to gun us down no matter what because of fear" Fox said before the Star Fox team and Samus separated channels.

The tricky part about fighting alongside someone for the first time was not being able to communicate. It could be considered a sort of trust exercise in any event, just not the best for this one. Samus also had worries concerning Madeline not being able to reach them during this battle. What if this team was going after her and Adam just basically handed her over without knowing? No that was completely untrue; they weren't that kind of people.

"Remember what to do? Just making sure" Anthony wanted to check with everyone to make sure they understood their parts.

"Yep, I fix what needs to be fixed," Slippy started.

"I accompany him," Adam came next.

"I take care of the enemies by the generators," Samus then said.

"And I make sure no one suspects a thing. Cool, we're set" Anthony was so sure his part was going to be easy.

The final minutes stayed quiet as they came closer to the planet. The damage to both planet and base was worse the closer they got. What word could be used to describe how everyone felt seeing this?

"H-hello? Is this an actual person?" how'd someone get on her comms?

Samus had an idea who it might've been.

"This is Samus Aran, Are you part of the soldiers stationed here?"

There was radio silence for a small amount of time. Eventually the person came back on.

"Most of us are transfers ma'am. The people stationed are either dead or fighting still" a new person was talking.

"Then what are you guys doing? You don't have any orders?"

"Our commanders were one of the first victims Ms. Aran, right now we're stuck indoors unsure of what to do" a female voice took over.

"I see," Samus made a quick look behind her seeing the other three a bit unsure about this conversation, "I'm coming to help so try to fend for yourselves until we can reach you"

"Really? Okay, I guess we'll discuss the rest in person" the same voice from last time finished.

The radio went back to silence showing that the chat was over. How were some transfers able to talk to them? Odd, very odd. In fact, how were they even able to get communications up? Wasn't that down?

"Anthony, think you can meet up with those transfers? Since they don't have anyone to command them then there's a chance some may want to wander to where we're going" Samus didn't want to separate from him but there was no choice; she'd already promised to help them.

"Got it, part of plan if you think about it" Anthony gave the usual cheery response.

Samus paid little attention to what he said since she had to land the ship. Luckily it wasn't hard to know what he would say. What Adam would think as well as the mercenaries was harder.

"So there isn't much out there? Huh" Madeline left her comm on while talking to herself.

Fox had to hear her go on and on about practically everything since she had no idea that Peppy always left his side of the channel open. At least they knew that she didn't wander off but still, it got annoying.

"So Slippy gets the ground huh? Well I'll sent him a congrats if he survives" Falco's sarcasm wasn't needed yet again.

"Oh you can join him too then, I bet you'll enjoy that" Madeline wasn't talking to herself.

"I have a motto, 'I prefer the air'. Still stickin' with it"

"That is a stupid motto"

"No, _yours_ is"

"I don't have a motto"

"Cut it out you two, we're aren't arguing or socializing here" Fox had to disrupt the two.

"Well what are we to do? Nothin's going on here and we can't enter atmosphere for some reason" Falco had some-of-a-point.

"Just because the generators are down doesn't mean that the cannons down there aren't working. They're set to blow anything not licensed unless cleared and you're neither"

"Well how are they operating then?"

"I'm not telling you!"

"Fine, geez"

"Again guys, we're not arguing"

With Madeline on the side Falco could do nothing but act childish. Though when has he never? When was the rest of the team never?

"Okay, okay, no arguing got that. One thing I'd like to say; he started it"

"Please don't start that" Krystal started to have a hard time listening to this.

"Yes, please don't"

"Oh quiet you"

When was it ever going to end? Maybe Madeline should've gone with Samus; it certainly would've helped the others trying to be patient.

"There's something up ahead. Careful now, there isn't much room for mistakes here" it was the best way Fox could get his friends to remember that they were flying and not standing in a room.

Everyone noted the large reading on their radars of their well-known enemy, Aparoids. The difference from now and last time was that there were more coming than in any previous attack. How this many survived was part of the big question definitely. The exact number of the enemy wasn't known by anyone except the enemy themselves. This battle was going to be a bit of a lengthy one for sure. Even if there was help from any battleships there would still be at least five hours of fighting the visible wave.

"Why can't they just call and tell us how many they want us to get rid of?" first time anyone actually agreed with Falco.

"We'll have to assist as much as possible, I don't think the fleet's really handled this kind of wave before" Madeline sounded worried.

Past battles the same or not, Star Fox still had to handle these Aparoids for those on the planet surface. "_Well,_" Fox thought to himself, "_now or never to try to survive…_"


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23: The Pain of Repairing

The big group of transfers couldn't believe how much had to done in order for anyone to come to them. In the panic of falling commanders, both the platoon troopers and transfers blocked up any entrance door to the electric rooms.

"What a mess we've done, now how's Samus gonna help us?" one of the troopers muttered to himself.

The brunette had to agree, how was she gonna help? Well they could've just blasted a hole but who was going to enjoy long minutes of a gaping hole when there's death outside? No one surely.

"Who welded this?" some random person said aloud to the crowd.

Everyone looked around the room for anyone that looked like they could weld. No one was going to step up to admit that in their new situation. Something had to be done and soon or else their new help won't be much help at all. That is unless she could talk to them through the new wall.

"Move from there!" someone from the front shouted as the crowd was pushed back from the blocked doors.

Some people in the back picked up weapons or tools for self defense against something. The brunette was confused until she could see the white dot on the wall that was slowly creating a line downwards; something was burning its way in. She was certain that the bugs outside didn't carry a plasma-sort weapon. Didn't the others realize it had to be a fellow human?

"Leave this one to the pros little kids!" the platoon guys just wanted to show off their "supremacy".

"Wait a sec now! That's not the bugs getting through!" she had to get the others to notice before they could accidentally kill their help.

The cut on the wall was done to resemble an archway target for the "superior" men. It was something the brunette didn't appreciate doing, but what else could she do? She kicked one of the men in the side as hard as possible forcing him to fall to his side with domino effect to the others. It was fortune that it actually worked as the new hole was knocked down letting a man in platoon armor enter. Many of the people in the room were confused on why Samus Aran wasn't standing there instead.

"You guys asked for help right?" some people gave him a nod, "Okay right place, I have to take place for Samus since she's gotta handle some things outside."

While he was talking, the "domino men" went to sealing the hole to keep the bugs out. The brunette was glad she didn't knock the guys down for no reason. She knew the name of this guy. According to her aunt, this was Anthony Higgs who was travelling with Samus, Madeline, Adam, and the Star Fox team. This was going to be good after all, now all she had to do was do what she had been instructed.

Anthony walked to the middle of the room mentally counting every head he could see. Definitely seemed like he came up with a plan and needed a certain amount of people. Now just what was it?

"So who's who in this group here? From what I'm informed about we need to get contact up along with power" Anthony didn't need to stand on anything to be the center of attention.

"Majority of us just transferred here, those guys there are part of the nineteenth platoon stationed here," the brunette nodded over to the guys she'd knocked over.

"We can make this work surely, so I say we make up a plan together!" Anthony kept his sentence in a enthusiastic way to cheer up the crowd.

Whether or not he used a happy tone, it got the crowd to gather around him to better organize after the panic. While they began discussing known info Anthony had to wonder how his buddies were doing.

Another down. How many left? Too many. How was Samus even going to clear the way with this many bugs in the way?

"How's the progress there?" Slippy asked over comm.

Another Aparoid crawled up to Samus in attempt to attack her back.

"What'd you think?" Samus had to respond as she blasted the bug away.

"Oh, well if it helps I can come in and help!" Slippy was trying to be more of use than he was then.

"As much as I would enjoy that, I have to decline it. You don't know who's going to see you here"

"Aww…" obviously disappointed.

With the short time she gained from clearing the hall, Samus looked around for any holes created that allowed the Aparoids to enter yet there seemed to be none. If they were leaving her alone for this long then that means that it must be fine to let Slippy and Adam come through.

"Hall's empty, for now"

"Got it, keep your guard up Lady" Adam said with his usual seriousness.

Samus stayed there for a few minutes until the two arrived. They hadn't seen anything on the way either, weird, where were the Aparoids now?

"Did you check the generator room yet?" something Samus should've done that Adam pointed out.

She shook her head. Now should she go in first to make up for it?

"Let me go check"

They watched as Samus cautiously walked in taking care to look for any signs of ambush. None. Even more odd. Weren't these Aparoids more dangerous than this? This was too safe for Samus to even like.

"Clear! Now let's get this done!" Slippy carelessly ran in before Samus could give the final call

Adam ran in to keep up with him. He wasn't exactly happy with him running in like that; no wonder his friends wanted him to be a mechanic rather than pilot. Slippy didn't seem to care about them being upset. He just continued on finding what had to be repaired without much care for threats. Was he trying to be focused?

"Hey can you slow down a bit? We don't know what's hiding here!" Samus wanted him to at least be more cautious.

He ignored her. Not the most polite response. "_Better check the rest of the area then_" Samus thought to pretend that he wasn't ignoring her. Adam watched her circle the whole area at the same time as Slippy trying to find what the problem even was.

"Is this a glitch or something? Nothing's broken at all!"

Samus paused where she was, wasn't there supposed to be a problem? Just as soon as that the floor started creaking, something was going to emerge. Was this going to be like the other time?

"Slippy-!" Samus tried to warn Slippy, but her fear came up faster.

A giant dragon flew through the gap in the floor and hovered for some time to look Samus straight in the eye. It was no other than Ridley, the Space Pirate leader responsible for her pain and fear.

"Whoa!" Slippy knew nothing of the danger and was more amazed than he should've been.

He stood there watching the big dragon fly over them gazing at the sight. This was a bad time to be new to such a thing. Ridley recognized Samus and Adam and was bored by their appearance in the area. He could've just simply went underground once more but the smell of something else kept him there. Something new, and not human like his usual course was there.

"You guys have dragons? That's cool!"

"No Slippy, we don't!" how was he unaware of what this actually was?

Ridley was now sure of what he was hungry for, whatever that green thing on the ground talking was it looked tasty to him. The dragon did a ground pound hard enough to force everyone standing to fall so his hunt would be easier. Against his plan, Samus got to her feet quickly and tried to get to Slippy before him. Ridley used his giant claws to claw the whole area enclosing everyone in the room with remains of the walls. It was the best he could do; keep his prey trapped while he handled the annoying one.

Samus managed to dodge some of the debris on her way to Slippy. She didn't have to worry about Adam; she knew that he would've easily dodged the falling wall too.

"Slippy!" Samus called out expecting a response.

No one yelled back, or that she could hear. Was he okay? If he had died from the mess Ridley made she'd be next. Samus didn't wait for late responses; she had to find him in the pile of metal and various other wall materials before anything. Hopefully he just ran out of the room in fright.

Ridley was displeased with Samus poking around where he knew the treat was. He had to dispose her quickly like he always attempted many times.

"Samus, handle Ridley! I'll dig around!" Adam had managed to shove a huge chunk of the ceiling off him and caught on to what was going on.

He managed to say something she wanted to hear. Samus was going to better enjoy killing Ridley than search with him watching.

"Understood, I'll try to not make more of a mess for the cleaning crew"

"_393 hits_" was what the dash screen read. Still wasn't even half of the enemies he wanted to get. Fox kept himself calm despite the frustrating amount of Aparoids behind him. It usually helped when these sort of things happened.

"Still hanging in there? I've got no reports of reinforcements so this might be all we have to deal with" Madeline delivered the news most wanted.

"Man that's all I needed to hear! You don't know how annoying these things are!" Falco gave everyone's expression.

As if words could summon people, a few mega Federation ships came and blasted through some of the Aparoids chasing Fox.

"We ask that your unregistered ships please land in one of the ships and contact us. This is a military only zone and we must go through regular procedures" if only the Federation officer knew that they had no clue what "regular procedures" were.

"Never knew that's how they got people to dock with them" another of Madeline's random comments.

Who ever was in charge was definitely new at this. What kind of person thought that kindly asking for unknown people to dock would get them that? New captains did that.

"Please respond back or we will have to mark you as part of the threat" and the theory of it being a new captain just rang true.

"Is this guy dumb?" Falco commented.

"We know you're on a private line! Don't make us think you can't operate communications!" this guy was getting impatient.

"He's a bit persistent" even Krystal could see that.

Since no one was responding back to the impatient captain, Fox could focus on what he was supposed to do. Relief on that part, but he still had to worry about Slippy's condition since they still didn't have contact with the ground. How were things down there anyway? Hopefully there could be time to fly down to the surface to make sure things were fine.

"Your time for response has ended, please be sure to recognize that we're not going to cooperate with you at this point unless surrender" and the part already seen coming.

"Wow, this guy really is an idiot, or American Idiot, anyone?" Madeline just couldn't remember the crowd she was talking to.

"American?" someone said.

"Um, I'll give you guys a music history lesson when this is over"

While Madeline was doing her talk over the bad joke, Fox had to avoid both Federation fire and Aparoids by far the worst combo. Why didn't these people see that they were helping and not attacking? Maybe the intelligent people were dead already.

"Looks like they're tracking all of us by comm, we might have to keep silent over here until an emergency" Peppy announced.

Fox acknowledged knowing that they couldn't risk losing their flagship. Not to a misunderstanding at least. Arwings could easily maneuver missiles or gun fire but the _Great Fox 2_ was too big to do that. That and if they tried boarding there'd be basically no fight with two actual people onboard versus many very-well-trained soldiers, unless they were dumb too then maybe Madeline and Peppy had a chance. Well any amount of soldiers onboard was bad intelligent or not.

A few more Aparoids came flying toward him taking advantage of the little support the team had. This was starting to favor the wrong side at the worst time. What could happen now to help them? Seeing their luck, nothing.

"Hello? Is this reaching team S.F?" someone familiar was contacting them.

Everyone wanted to reply, but then the call tracing kept them worried. Fox decided that he had to answer even if the idiot captain was listening.

"I'm here, who's this?"

"Hey Mickey! It's Anthony! Got communications fixed! You won't believe how simple it was to fix it!" why did Anthony just call him "Mickey"?

"That's fixed? Weren't you supposed to-"

"Got a whole load of transfers down here willing to help a whole load on things. Shame Samus couldn't help us since she has to handle some outside guys"

He got it now, he was given a nickname because Anthony was next to other people and Fox wasn't exactly a human name. That made more sense.

"Yeah, guys up in space aren't that much fun. How's the repair?" Fox had to play along.

"The tower was just jammed so we got that fixed fast. I have no contact with the repair group, something's off"

How can there contact there but none right where the best connection would be?

"I'll go check on them, things are sort-of fine here"

"Oh no, I'll go. Seriously please" Anthony wanted him to stay there.

"Stay there and keep communication with the Federation up, that's my friend not responding" Fox knew that there was going to be many people responding on that comment.

He cut all communication with the others and set course to fly down to the surface. From there he was going to hope that Slippy was fine. How could he trust his best friend alone with three strangers?


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24: How to Kill a Ridley

General Howe listened into the conversation Anthony Higgs had. He found it quite interesting how the most enthusiastic soldier he had was very concerned for someone else beside Ms. Aran.

"Did you get the full reading on those ships? We're going to need it" Howe asked one of the people at the computers aboard the G.F.S. Olympus.

"Yes sir, they have almost the same coding as the robbery one. Where are they from, if you know, general, sir?"

The general stood there silently. He wasn't allowed to tell people of lower status of the situation. All he could do was ask for information.

"Send the profile about yesterday's Daiban office break-in to me and start the report about this invasion. I'll need both for something later" General Howe instructed then turned to leave the bridge.

"Yes sir!" the guy at the computer started work immediately feeling down from no answer.

Howe kept a serious pace down the hall as many engineers and soldiers either ran or stood saluting on the side in respect. That was a minor, everyday thing. The major subject was figuring the identity of the blue and grey single-pilot fighters that wouldn't respond to them but to Mr. Higgs. He had seen those before but his memory on those was less than crystal-clear. Those reports could hopefully help on that.

He reached his quarters where two fully-armored guards stood with one light-haired woman. Howe had expected her to be there sometime.

"Don't worry men, Danette here was called to meet me here" Howe gave the guards a laughing tone and smile to let them know it was true.

The guards gave him a nod then moved aside. The woman smiled back and waited for Howe to enter the room before coming in herself and shutting the door.

"What did you pick up Devin?" Danette asked watching him press a button to keep anyone from hearing their conversation.

"Don't the rules state ladies first?"

Danette gave a light chuckle.

"I guess so, rules you've made for your quarters"

"Nothing of worth then?"

"Oh no, I've got much to discuss. I've learned that ex-commander Adam Malkovich is alive"

Howe stopped smiling. That name was enough to make him sour.

"Are you trying to upset me?"

"No, it was him chatting with the animals. Filthy beasts they are"

Danette made a disgusted face at the mention of "animals". Howe never really got people like her from the organization.

"Why can't you tell me their appropriate names? I don't have true hatred for them yet"

"It's the idiotic Star Fox team from Lylat. Those disgusting rats should infest some other place-"

Howe ignored her endless rant. He wasn't as worried about those people as she was.

"Is there anything actually important? I need something more to succeed this assignment"

"Yeah, the team's leader looks exactly like your robber. Enough right?"

He knew that Danette just wanted to see the guy on death trial. Even if it was what he was supposed to do it was kind of over-the-top.

"I'll just live with it, oh and don't follow me. We don't work, officially, with one another" Howe opened the door picking up a disappointed act for the guards.

"Sorry sir, but I'm not ready to move up yet. I'll just live with my position and not die"

The guards couldn't pick up the secret message. Only people like Howe knew what she meant with the last sentence; _get rid of the ones in the way or I'll be ordered to kill you_.

"_Why's this door sealed tight? What is even going on in there?_" Fox had to wonder as he stood outside the first generator room. It was easy to tell where they headed with the carcasses scattered about in the halls. Just the question of what was keeping the door closed was the hard part. Fox had to get inside and figure why Slippy never called back. There had to be some reason.

"Man, it's such a pain when doors never open when you want"

He froze in place when someone had spoken. Was it Samus?

"What's wrong? Not waiting for help? Well I'm heading in anyway" it was the brunette who had snuck away when Anthony came to the recruits.

Fox couldn't understand why she was comfortable with him around. Wouldn't she be afraid or something?

"Well Fox, before we start just call me Lizzy"

"Wai-" Fox wanted to ask how she knew his name.

Lizzy held a sword in her right hand that seemed useless in a tech world. The answer to what she was going to do with it was simply slash the door open. Like any scene from a ninja movie, it cut right through the door breaking the sealing effect the door had.

"That only happens when the room takes heavy damage. I don't like what's probably going on in there. Here," she handed her sword over to Fox, "help out in there. I've got to be elsewhere."

With that, Lizzy turned and ran off before Fox could ask or chase her. She left him there in major confusion. How'd she know him and just hand him an unfamiliar weapon? Weird was all that could be used to sum up that encounter. Like everything else going on, he'd have to put that aside to get inside and help Slippy.

Ridley held nothing back. He used every attack he knew to try to finish the battle quick. Samus couldn't do the same type of tactic as him because of her abilities requiring power. The best way to avoid every attack thrown at her was simply dodging.

"How's it over there?!" Samus yelled before Ridley tried to spear her with his tail.

"Better than there!" comical for Adam.

Adam was about to pick up a piece of a broken rafter when he could hear a loud metallic-scratching noise from the direction of the door. Was Anthony on his way in? That wouldn't be possible; he had to keep the crowd occupied while they were repairing. No, it was Fox pushing the door open so he could get in. Wasn't he covering space? What was he doing there?

"Where's Slippy?" Fox asked Adam oblivious to the battle between Samus and Ridley.

"I'm searching, what're you here for? Someone mi-"

"What the heck is that thing?!" Fox only then noticed the dragon in the room when the room got hotter from Ridley's fire breath.

"Hurry up over there!" Samus was losing very slowly. That never happened in the last battles.

"Go help her, I'll continue my search"

As much as Fox wanted to look for his friend he knew he had to help. If it was just Samus distracting then there'd be less of a chance of finding him before they couldn't be found either.

"Please help Slippy, quick" Fox begged before running off to assist Samus.

Ridley knew that their efforts would be futile with the basic weaponry Samus and Fox had (and to be truthful he was glad Samus lost the Phazon Suit since that wasn't the best memory for him when they fought). The reason Samus was losing wasn't because of stamina but rather Ridley's "armor" that he gained from low health. If memory was correct, then Super Missiles could blow the armor off yet, somehow, Samus couldn't even use a simple missile.

"What do we do?" Fox asked after a few of his Blaster shots reflected off Ridley.

Samus didn't know herself; usually ideas automatically came when she randomly fired on enemies. As helpful as it was at times it wasn't the kind of tactic you'd want to tell someone when you have limited weapon choices. They needed more time to figure out what was different about Ridley now.

"Just dodge him until we figure something out" was all Samus could say.

Never the best answer if you aimed to make your "new partner" less nervous about fighting a giant dragon.

"There better be; this is new creature to me"

"They found what?!"

"Ridley, sir, and they're still battling him"

Howe was upset enough to throw something across the room but he kept himself from doing that. Things were slowly out of his control and out-of-plan.

"How should we react?"

If Samus were to kill Ridley he would lose his position. He had to find a way to save himself if his weapon was defeated.

"Send some men in to capture whoever is in the room. Don't try battling the dragon"

The man at communications started to relay the information to the soldiers on the ground. This had to work in his favor.

"Don't worry, I made sure to keep all of her weapons disabled so her chances of victory are very low" something said over Howe's earpiece.

There wasn't even a single chip in his armor despite Samus and Fox's aim for one specific spot with their shots. If Ridley were to develop some emotions he'd be laughing at their failure to find weak spots. This seemed to be a better day for him than any other.

"I thought you said we'd figure something out!" Fox barely dodged Ridley's claw attack.

"Give it time! It's been awhile!" partial lie; Samus just wanted to hide the fact that she hadn't Ridley in this form before.

"_They're so tired they're yelling at one another. Perfect time for me to cook them!_" Ridley gave the long-toothy smile of joy as he started to "charge up" for his extreme fire breath. He was going to enjoy a fresh meat kabob tonight. Too bad that he was leaving his mouth wide open and not thinking that anyone could see advantage in that no matter the stamina.

"See now?!" Samus got her partner's attention in time to demonstrate what she figured.

She took a charged shot and sent it directly to Ridley's gaping wide mouth canceling what he had in mind. Now, if you thought Strep or Dry throat was bad just imagine the pain of a burnt throat. If you took the time to think of that unbearable pain then it would be very expected for Ridley to grab at his neck and give an unhealthy fit of coughs.

"I saw that!" Fox acknowledged adding to Ridley's agony with more shots to the throat.

Now he was choking on the charred remains of his throat making it a miracle that he was even alive. Even Adam stopped his search to look at this not-so-much miracle; this was an impossible moment to miss. "_I'm not giving you anymore time to laugh at me Aran!_" Ridley tried to screech through the intense pain. He had a back-plan he'd figured some time ago on avoiding another loss. This was going to be another frustrating moment for the ones he was fighting.

Ridley tried to keep himself from coughing further and gave a very loud cry initiating a bright-green light to surround him. In only a few short seconds did the light disappeared revealing a fully-healed Ridley.

"What?!" most likely everyone yelled.

He expected the shock and quickly used his tail to send Samus and Fox flying to the walls since they were standing closer to him than Adam. Both were lucky that their "landing" areas had no dangerously sharp pieces to accidentally land on disappointing Ridley. Adam was relieved with that fact and decided to attempt to distract him while the two were recovering from the hit. He knew that the best attention-grabber had to be the Freeze gun he always had. Hopefully he didn't need to do this for too long.

"Hey!" he shouted aiming at the dragon's back.

The shout didn't work, but the main part of the plan was effectively. Adam hit Ridley with the freezing shot making his back cold. If there was anything he hated most of all it had to be the cold. Ridley turned around and roared at Adam's face in anger. It came to his mind that this seemingly fearless human would be better than the brat and fox.

While that was going on, Fox picked himself off the ground taking time to make sure he didn't get stabbed by any random piece on the ground (fortunately he wasn't). He searched the ground to see if he bled anywhere and noticed an object reflecting light by the door. Fox looked over at Adam's situation forcing him to decide if he should be coming to his aid quickly or run there to see what it was. In his split-second decision he chose to head to the door slowly remembering what he might've left there. Right there waiting was the sword that unnamed girl gave him that Fox left there since he had nothing to hold it while it wasn't in use.

If the example he saw earlier could help in any way this might assist somewhat in finishing this battle then finding Slippy if he hadn't been crushed at this point. Knowing that the time spent worrying was going to risk more than just his friend with this dangerous monster. Fox joined Samus again as soon as Ridley unarmed Adam forcing him to duck behind a small pile of ruble.

"Where'd you get that?" Samus questioned Fox's new weapon.

"I have no clue"

Adam's hiding spot was about to be uncovered by Ridley who was clawing around to find him. Without too much thought in his panic, Fox slashed the dragon in the back while he was turned away leaving a very deep cut. Ridley gave a loud scream of pain and turned to see what just sliced and burned his back right through the armor. He sent his pointed tail after Fox only for him to cut that off with the sword too. Humiliated, Ridley became desperate and launched himself to crush him as his last resort on winning.

Samus blasted Ridley's eye blinding him enough to miss Fox. It was luck that she could actually hit his eye and keep him from landing on the intended target.

"Thanks"

Samus nodded to him then ran over to Ridley still lying on the ground. If this went through correctly then she could keep him from regenerating and finally kill him once and for all. Samus forced Ridley's mouth to open then stuffed her arm cannon in to charge shot his throat like before. Ridley roared in pain as he received the painful burns in the throat again. Samus controlled all the shots she made and backed out when the tattered dragon was in enough agony to keep the urge of finishing him for revenge under control. What she could do was terrifying enough as is to the others and excessively shooting Ridley could give her a bad image from them.

Ridley stood on his two back legs and used his "arms" to grab his throat; this time the shots damaged him enough to prevent him from doing the cry and healing. He couldn't even cough, make any sound, or spit blood since it was charred. As if the floor couldn't stand pain, it opened up and swallowed him as he had once come out before.

"Drop your weapons and stand still! Orders from the general!" several Federation soldiers flooded into the room surrounding Adam, Samus, and Fox.

"We ask that you remain still and quiet!" another soldier yelled.

"What's going on? I don't remember doing anything wrong-"

"Quiet Aran! I've got orders for you too!" the soldier threatened her while pointing his gun directly at her.

"Enough standing around! Round the three up!"


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25: Something is Off…

The big group of guys walked off with Fox, Samus, and Adam in cuffs. They couldn't fight against the men for the reason of proving themselves friendly. No one brought up hiding from sight to not be carried away. Just something Slippy always knew well; hiding. The whole time he hid from the big soldiers and waited until they left.

During the time of the Ridley battle, he'd chosen to hide from the giant-vicious dragon ignoring the fact that everyone was in search of him. Slippy didn't care; he didn't want to be dragon dinner as Ridley had planned to make of him. He still had many things to repair before being eaten and also a few wills that he should've made a very long time ago. By the time the threat of being dinner was cleared Slippy had to be afraid of the new guys. Just the thought of being taken away by gunpoint was scary enough; what if they "accidentally" shot him?

"Urg, look at that mess. Can't believe we have to clean that later…" a search soldier commented to himself.

He looked at the mess around lazily and decided that no one could be hiding in the debris. He was so wrong. Once the soldier left the room it was empty for one particular person; Slippy. Slippy emerged from the pile of wall remains he made just for hiding and searched around frantically for any other life in the room. No one else.

He attempted to call Falco to check on his other friends but no response came back. Slippy moved on to call Krystal, then Falco again, and finally Anthony. None of them answered. What happened to them? Did they get taken away just like the others?

"Slippy? Where's everyone else?" a frantic Madeline called over comm.

At least someone was still up. At least Slippy wasn't the only one to avoid capture.

"I only know that some guys came in to arrest Fox, Samus, and Adam. The others couldn't have been arrested too right?"

"Fox was down there?! Why would he be there?!" good to see Peppy was fine too.

"How am I supposed to know? Shouldn't you have an idea?"

"We had to stop talking to the team since they were attempting to track us through our conversations. When we were able to talk again through some complicated means their radio was silent. How'd you avoid these men by the way?"

"…I was… hiding"

"You were what?!"

"Dude, chill, Slippy just try to keep doing what you're doing and we'll figure something out. There's got to be something we all can do"

Something wasn't right. These idiots kept dragging everyone to this guy's office despite Falco's efforts to _actually_ be nice. Krystal didn't talk; she feared what these guys were up to. Anthony tried to smile and tell a joke to one of the guards to remind them who he was; it had no effect.

"No really sir, that's one sick hat you got! Makes me want one you know!" Falco's sentence was so out-of-place for him.

"And that's why we don't say 'Good Luck' in the theatre business. Funny right?" the guard hid his laugh too well.

"…Isn't there a fourth amendment here?" looking through memories was such a pain, but this guy's memorization of something called the _Bill of Rights_ had to mean something.

"We do have a warrant from the general. This is legal, for us"

Krystal said nothing else as the guards continued to drag them through the halls. The other two didn't have anything to be quiet about obviously. Anthony and Falco finally went quiet when Samus, Adam, and Fox were dragged into their hallway. They all went silent to fool these guys that they were the only other ones. It wouldn't be a good idea to let some random guys know that there were others they didn't pick up.

"You people better talk when the general arrives!" one guard yelled as the group approached General Howe's office.

They were all pushed, very rudely, into the room before the general walked in and past them. It was some major insult to just casually past while someone else was shoved.

"Of all people I wanted to see in this room, I certainly didn't want to see our best bounty hunter involved in this crime! Why would you betray the Federation in such a way miss Samus Aran? Your father would be ashamed of his daughter's actions most certainly…" Howe's insults deepened further.

"What crime? No living being here attempted murder; we all helped you!" Falco was ending his nice act only because of this guy.

"We all made sure not to hurt your people when we were fending off the threat. Every one of us made sure to not hit anyone and I'm certain that no one was harmed by our hand" Krystal took a better approach than Falco.

"I do believe we are allowed to hear our crime, correct?" Anthony took his advantage of citizenship.

"This fox here broke into Federation headquarters and ran off with our valuable information and we can prove that the getaway vehicle was registered the same way as his!" Howe's rage came out of nowhere.

Fox had no idea what he was talking about. He didn't even know where the heck these humans would put a capital yet they assume he's involved? Man what morons these people were.

"You have an issue there sir. You see, I've been talking to these folks for quite some time and they have no way to learn any type of robbery. When I went to visit them at least a few months ago there was a criminal on the loose they were after. This criminal spends his time looking like my friend here to be a step ahead of us. Wouldn't surprise me if that's your guy" Samus quickly made a story up to save their hides. Howe half-believed it.

"Young miss right here, may I politely ask for a description of this criminal?" Howe stood in front of Krystal. He couldn't intimidate her that way though.

"He's a vicious killer and crook whose last noted crime was slicing an innocent soldier's neck and taking off with his ship. If he's licensed the same way as us then we've found our guy" everyone shivered; that was dark for Krystal.

"Really now? Is this why you come out with no representation?"

"They _are_ the representation, Howe sir. Their government trusted them to handle the customs over here and we're to help them if it gets confusing" Anthony backed them up.

"Yeah, and helping you fools out is part of the package" Falco didn't get smacked for that in the first time in history.

"Calling a important military figure a 'fool' mustn't be part of it; that is unless you're commonly rude" one of the guards talked out of place and receiving an evil glare from the general.

Falco was just lucky that all of his friends were cuffed or there would've been some serious whack up-side the head right about then. His common language just ruined their small chance of freedom. Weren't there any days when he could realize that?

"You better hope that this story of yours can be backed up by tomorrow. That and you better hope we find Madeline Bergman too, I believe she was in custody of the two of you right?" Star Fox didn't know about the custody part. How're they going to figure how to get through that?

"You won't find her with us" Fox calmly lied to Howe.

"Excuse me? May I believe that you have some reason to say that?"

"In trade for them to help us, Miss Bergman has to be with one of our guys to help in this situation. It's not part of a hostage plan though; that gets too messy too quickly"

Howe appeared upset. Why would a general be so angry about learning that one of people is safe? This wasn't right at all for both sides of the argument.


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26: When Madeline Rushes In

"Excuse me! People walkin' through! Gee, out of the way!" Madeline shoved her way through the crowd in a very rude manner.

"I'm so sorry for that woman" Peppy apologized for her despite the confused faces of soldiers.

She kept plowing through the crowd like snow with no care for who was who. Madeline was determined to get to her buddies in time before anything in the universe.

"Watch it! Only certain people past this poi-" one guard tried to stop Madeline only to stop at the sight of her companion.

"Do I look like I care who's big here?! I'm heading in without your authorization!" Madeline threw the guard out of her way and forced the door open.

"I'm sorry about her, she's not in the best of moods obviously" Peppy helped the poor guard to his feet then followed in the room.

Madeline found her way into the general's office right as they were discussing her. She had no clue though.

"Hey buddy! Why'd you just go and arrest my friends without telling them why?! We all have rights when no one dies by our hand!" Madeline pointed her finger at General Howe like she was about to yell "Objection!" or something.

"Funny now, you said that she was in the hands of one of your men" Howe looked over to Fox.

"At least apologize to the poor guy; he wasn't happy after your rude passing" another coincidental walk-in right after Peppy helped the guard.

Howe started to hysterically laugh at him. He didn't see their friend as the best of companions.

"How come he gets to laugh at him for no reason? I call unfair!" Falco became his usual self once more.

"Want a big slap in the face for early Christmas?!" Madeline took the rage way too far.

"N-no, I'm fine"

The general stopped laughing and went back to his old, serious state of business. He walked over to Madeline to press information out of her.

"Why would you be supporting these people when they have a possibility of being criminals?"

"Ha, ha! Your joke sucks by the way. I call bail right now!"

Howe moved over to Peppy. He could at least earn a hint from that guy, right?

"Why is it I've never seen you support your friends? If you've managed to get on this ship then it is clear that you enjoy slacking off"

"You don't handle our line of work, how can you possibly get why I'm on the sidelines?"

"I never thought he was _that_ dumb" Madeline whispered over to Anthony.

Howe heard Madeline's rude comment and started approaching her in a matter that showed his anger.

"Listen here now, you don't have the room to speak like that with your record, Ms. Bergman. You don't even understand my position so just zip that mouth of yours before you get another nasty mark on that record!" the general was infuriated, she successfully set him off.

He was becoming more annoying to deal with. Howe just couldn't listen to what he was being told at all and he went to threaten Madeline. This guy is ignorant, wasn't it said that the general was a good listener?

"There isn't time for any of this, sir. Threats don't go anywhere in this time and place. Don't ya know that?" some familiar voice said.

Everyone turned their attention to the door where a dark-haired woman was standing in uniform.

"How'd you get in here?!"

She laughed at Howe's surprise.

"Not that hard buddy, ya should consider mental training on guards next time ya hire"

"Get out of here and mind your own business! This is my job and none of yours!"

"Really? Throw me out like that? What does that do? Make me walk off because ya said so? That's pathetic"

"Take it as your order then, who's your officer?!"

"Dead, yeah I didn't agree with that guy anyway"

"Go get a new officer then and leave"

"Like my officer, most of the people I work with bit the dust. I'll call that my promotion"

She walked over to Falco and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Wouldn't that mean that I might need these fellas to lead then?"

Howe looked at the clock on his wall and then gritted his teeth. He had something to do in ten minutes that had more importance than this mess.

"Fine then, but I want to have more privacy than this when I talk with people"

"One-time thing with ya"

The woman walked out leaving everyone else to figure out what had just happened. Falco, though, just wanted to shrug off that creepy experience of the hand on the shoulder.

"Get out now! I have something to do that you people have no part in!" Howe shouted to push them out of the room.

They (Adam, Fox, Anthony, Krystal, Slippy, Madeline, and Peppy, everyone) had been waiting for an hour or so for Samus to return from whatever she was doing. Before she'd left Samus said that she had to sort things out. To be honest nearly half of the party hoped that she was investigating why the general was so different.

"You know, when we had to prepare for things to be entirely different it would've been nice to tell us that some woman are creeps" Falco said in his private conversation with Madeline.

"In your opinion, besides I've never seen a soldier so confident in speaking against a higher rank like that woman"

"Speaking of the devil"

The woman who they were talking about walked their way in a very informal way. She'd changed out her uniform and went for a gray hoodie and jeans as if no one would care if she wasn't self-promoted.

"There ya folks are, there's so much to go through after that confusion. Your luck I was around" she stuffed her hands in her pockets to grab something from them.

No one responded or even asked for a name.

"Well then, ya certainly are a warmin' bunch. Anyhow, who's usually in charge of reading official orders?" she found the folded paper in her jean-pocket and held it out to them waiting for at least one person to step forward.

"I will do that for now" Adam politely took the paper and unfolded it being careful to not rip it.

"While he's doin' that do ya want to come with me for a bit Fox?"

Fox gave her a puzzled look. Why him specifically?

"It's best to set things up with people best used to it" with that she walked away without looking back.

"I'll be back, if Samus comes back before me you know what to tell her" Fox told the others then followed their unnamed woman.

Adam glanced at his departure and switched back to reading the paper. Seconds after starting, he stopped. This order didn't make much sense at all, who passed it?

"What is it?" Krystal was the one to ask.

"I want to think about this for a moment…" Adam handed it over to Peppy and went to thinking.

Falco, Slippy, and Madeline crowded together to read what got Adam in his thought state.

"What?" The crowding three said together before Peppy could read it.


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27: They Do Have Names

Samus watched as Fox was led to the nearly empty connecting bridge. She had been waiting there as instructed by the woman who gave no name, yet.

"So what's with this whole business of you taking a position, weirdly?" Samus asked right as Fox joined up.

"Straight to questions eh? Saw that comin'" the woman laughed.

Both Samus and Fox waited for her to give the answer they wanted. Fortunately, it didn't take long.

"Ahem, well I guess ya didn't need to call for me. Kinda wanted that ya know"

"Why?" Fox wasn't informed of the encounter Samus had.

"I had hoped that ya guys would call for me with the fake name to handle stuff for me instantly. Curses on that"

"We don't need to be using them" the girl that had helped Fox, and given the sword, interrupted.

"Well since you decided to join in might as get down to names. I'm Reina and that's my niece, we'll just say Lizzy"

Lizzy walked close enough to the railing to see the emptiness of the canyon below. She put her hands on the rails as if she feared falling over. Lizzy kept them waiting before giving her own response.

"My aunt and I are personally investigating something else. We had happened to hear of the Aparoid/Metroid business during it. Obviously that is more important than what we want"

"Why would you gladly tell us that?" Fox had to wonder.

"It's inevitable that all of us will get dragged into it. Best that the both of you know" Reina said.

It wasn't the best explanation but it was all they were going to get. Getting more out of them might be a miracle.

"Let's say that me being in charge of your impressive group keeps ya safe until things get straightened out. Lizzy will be transferred over for this too" Reina continued.

"For what?" came from both Samus and Fox.

"Our master plan," Reina started rubbing her hands until she made herself laugh, "I'm sorry that was just temptin'"

A sigh of annoyance came from Lizzy who did not find it amusing, possibly because of their situation.

"That's the main part we're going to be sharing," Lizzy had paused for a little bit looking over at another connecting bridge not too far, "so who's on the _Great Fox_?"

Fox certainly did not want to answer. Samus of course wasn't either.

"Why would you need to know?" Fox had to know.

"Ya picked up a guy in Sauria and two other guys picked a ride outta there. They're gonna get off soon enough" Reina announced.

Fox wasn't liking that news at all. Would that explain why their elevator had broken? Two random guys were on _his_ ship and most likely were tampering with things. Then again he didn't notice anything weird, were they waiting for everyone…to get off? That means it's only Rob onboard and he's an android, he couldn't put up any fight.

"We're going to have to get back to the others now if that's true" Samus stated her obvious concern.

Lizzy gave no objection and Reina just waved them away. Those two had no honest care about situation as much as they did care. It was something hard to understand from the two women.

"Before ya leave for your respective ships, I'll catch up to keep some people away" Reina told them.

Samus nodded while Fox wanted to get to the others quickly. With that they ran back into the base hoping their friends remained where they had been left.

"They're gettin' along so well, maybe they'll punch Falco for me" Reina joked.

Lizzy hadn't found that amusing either.

"These are different people Aunt Rein. You're freaking Falco out and it wouldn't be much of a surprise if he issued a restraining order"

Reina silently giggled about it. Must've been something she expected.

"I'm not hangin' here long anyhow. He can do that all he wants" Reina started to walk off towards no specific direction.

Lizzy shook her head to the weird person she was related to. Not too long afterward Lizzy too left in no specific direction.


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28: Stowaways and Soldiers

Adam, Anthony, Krystal, Madeline, Peppy, and Slippy were forced to listen to Falco go off about something. They didn't know what but it was something. Even Adam nearly fell asleep during the story, or whatever it was now.

"Guys!" Fox was called out waking them all up.

"Hey I was stil-"

"So I declare we set off now to somewhere, just leave Falco here" Madeline said out of nowhere.

Both Samus and Fox got to their friends who were more tired even though they did nothing. They were wanting to hear a way better story than Falco's.

"How'd you guys get onboard the Olympus?" Fox asked Madeline and Peppy.

"Well we took one of the boarding shuttles. Don't worry about those fellows we got 'em handled"

"Ya locked them in the hangar bay?" Reina wondered what she saw when everyone got back to the _Great Fox 2_.

"It was all her idea" Peppy put the blame on Madeline.

"H-hey! I made sure that none of us killed each other, can I get credit for that?!"

"Oh great" Fox sarcastically said as he had to unlock the hangar bay inside the G.F.S. Olympus' hangar bay.

After a few attempts to remember the password, Fox finally got it right and unlocked the doors. The Federation soldiers that had been trapped were all sitting on the ground as if they completely gave up on everything. The doors opening gave them quite a shock to know they weren't going to die.

"Get out already, your briefin's are startin' up within five minutes!" Reina chased them out without much difficulty.

All the soldiers evacuated as quickly as possible but not without staring at the strangers. They only understood less than a third of what had happened while they were trapped.

"Now they're out," Reina looked up on the catwalk area, "HOW ABOUT THE REST OF YA?!"

Peppy, Madeline, and Fox couldn't figure what the yelling was about until-

"Screw you woman! Why do you always do this?!"

The three looked up and saw a Space Pirate poke out from behind an Arwing. Was that talking?

"You're such an idiot!" someone else yelled.

"You are all idiots" a different person said.

What was this crowd about? Was Reina ordering around this bunch?

"Just get out here morons, it's already obvious that you're here" Reina ordered.

"Grr, fine" the terrier, Glent, came out too.

"And you too Clerent!" Reina called the last out.

When he didn't volunteer to come out on his own, the Space Pirate picked up his friend from hiding.

"Ha, ha. Thanks George" Clerent, the fox, sarcastically mumbled.

"Who're these people?!" Fox was surprised at their new guests.

"Real question; how'd they get onboard?" Peppy added.

George, Clerent, and Glent looked at one another then moved on to elbow-bumping to make one another explain.

"Uh well Clerent wanted to save Glent so we snuck on. I would've left him" George started.

"He has stuff on my brother George!" Clerent whacked George in the head.

"I was only on Sauria to find my friend" Glent ignored the other two.

Fox studied their words to figure what was going on. The slap fight between George and Clerent didn't help. When they were to stop would be a good question.

"Friend? Brother? Who're you looking for?" Peppy asked first.

George and Glent stopped their fighting and went silent. They really weren't wanting to talk about it. Reina did for them.

"Glent and Clerent were stranded on a barren planet where George was exiled. When they attempted to escape Clerent's brother, Theodore, was captured. I offered to help as long as they assisted me a bit"

"You left us behind!" George argued.

"No I hadn't, you kept ranting on about Federation people non-stop while I told you where I went"

Madeline stepped forward and looked at the three. She had some thoughts to consider from what she heard.

"A Space Pirate speaking English, that's new. But if you're looking for this Theodore wouldn't you be somewhere else?" she questioned.

"Well…one thing goes to another…" Clerent partially explained.

Reina stepped in front of the crowd on the ground.

"We have to do somethin'…major. Ya get it. Last thing we need is for ya all to be dead"

Clerent, Glent, and George nodded. They went on to jumping off the catwalk then running past everyone without any word.

"You're going to let them run around like that?" Peppy asked.

"Yeah, I'll never be able to control those guys. Besides, Samus dislikes Space Pirates right?"

Madeline had to agree with that. Having George around would never be good for them on whatever they had to do.

"Okay guys, let's get everyone else to get in here to finalize out major plan" Reina took the lead towards the elevator.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29: The Final Plan

With all the ships back in the Hangar Bay, no more stray soldiers looking to find the _Great Fox 2_'s owners, and everyone back on the bridge it was time. Time for the final plan. Though it had seemed there was barely time since the start of this crisis.

"Okay folks, now what do ya think we're up to?" Reina started asking the crowd she was in front of.

They all stared at her as if it was the most ridiculous thing to ask.

"Uh, we're destroying things. What are we babysitting now or something?" Falco blurted out.

"That's what I'm doin' genius. What we're gonna do is find where those purple creeps live and blow it up!" Reina didn't get the crowd very excited.

"That'll be hard to do when we don't know _where_ they came from" Adam corrected.

"We've managed to track an Aparoid who was escaping the battle to the edge of Federation space" Lizzy came in the bridge during the time Adam finished talking.

"Why're ya so late? Gotta get here on time if you want to stay!" Reina yelled to Lizzy.

Lizzy only shrugged. She didn't want to be more of an interruption than she already was.

"You sent someone to follow it?" Slippy was slightly amazed.

"Well it kinda failed ultimately and made itself easy to follow just by radio" Reina corrected.

"Happy it did that, slightly" Anthony showed the bright side.

"Transmission from G.F.S. Olympus" Rob reported in.

Fox looked at Reina. She nodded.

"Open it Rob" Fox ordered.

As Rob opened the channel Fox and Samus stepped ahead of the crowd to answer for everyone.

"Samus Aran? So you're really with them" an Admiral said as soon as the channel opened along with the video feed.

"Admiral Dane?" Samus recognized him.

"Haven't forgotten, good. So I hope she's telling you what you need to know"

All eyes turned to Reina. She waved them all off.

"Now, I hope you already knew, we've tracked the location of the Aparoid nest-"

"Metroids too?" Krystal disrupted Admiral Dane.

"Ahem, yes, them too. At first all we had known was they resided in the edge of Federation space but now we found out which specific planet," he turned around to listen in to someone behind him, "our data and the coordinates have been sent to your android, I've been told."

"Thank you, sir" Fox had noticed Rob downloading it already.

"Before we get any further, I would like to know why you're here instead of General Howe" Adam demanded.

The same person from earlier came up behind Admiral Dane and spoke for him.

"After you had ridden of Ridley some suspicion was placed on the general. Until the investigation is over Admiral Dane will be taking the lead on the G.F.S. Olympus"

"Thank you Ronald. Since we're talking already, Commander Malkovich, I would like to tell you to not make too much contact with the soldiers until we can discuss some…things later"

"Understood" Adam went back to being silent.

Ronald went off screen doing whatever it was his job had him do. Samus guessed he'd only come out to explain things the Admiral couldn't.

"Now what are the conditions of your, um…"

"Arwings? They're just fine" Peppy assisted him.

"Yes, Arwings, I have to make sure you guys are ready for what we have to do"

"What do you have planned for all of us?" Samus wanted this planning to press on.

"Your Arwings can be quite maneuverable, as we've seen. We hope that Star Fox could help cover the troops being sent to the ground" Admiral Dane waited for a few images to appear on the screen.

"So they've got heavy air defensives huh? Ain't no problem for me!" Falco showed off.

"I'll guess the rest; as Star Fox covers the shuttles Samus will head inside to find the big monster" Lizzy shortened it.

"Yes, however some precaution scans tell us that there's another 'Queen' that could come and attack the battle ships even in space. It would be nice if Star Fox could too help in taking that out" Admiral Dane added.

"Of course, that stuff is part of our job" Fox accepted.

"Will I need to worry about your payments later?" Admiral Dane quickly had to ask.

"Seeing how this is we won't worry about it. We're more concerned about safety than money"

"I am with Fox on that" Samus agreed.

They didn't have to look back to know Peppy was happy about that.

"Okay then, Miss Reina will _hopefully_ help out on your instructions. This could be the last chance we get to finalize this forever" the Admiral finished as the channel closed.

Reina ran up next to Rob and watched what he was up to. She had been ready for this role, sort of.

"First step guys, follow the Admiral to our last battle!"


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30: To the Last Battle!

Fox had made himself go to every area to check on things while Rob directed the ship on where to go. The idea of this being the end of it all was getting to everyone. Fox knew that and wanted to keep his mind off that. It was very noticeable that everyone was finally getting along with no questions about the others. Everyone trusted each other.

It was good that they could work together for what was to come, but what it was Fox really feared was what happens afterward. They'd be separated. There may never be a chance to meet again. He could've just been overreacting and thought that; then again it was a high chance. What could he do about it?

Nothing, probably. Only thing to hope for was a miracle that there could at least some communication between them all.

"Hey, Fox" Lizzy broke Fox out of his thinking.

"What?"

Lizzy could guess why he was worried. She saw it in everyone else.

"You know that this won't be the end. There's more that'll happen after this. No matter what you assume, something will happen and you'll meet again. But…I may not be a considered ally"

Fox didn't understand. What was she meaning?

"What will happen? You seem to know"

Lizzy didn't anything else about it. She wasn't going to give away too much about herself.

"Take care of your friends. Always keep them safe. I know what happens when that fails"

Lizzy walked away to prevent anything else from being said. That's all that he needed to know.

Madeline handed Slippy all his tools he asked for while he finished up the long been scratched-up maintenance room. It was fine from the state their last repairs made it but both Madeline and Slippy were bored enough to make it better.

"It's it, who knows what's going to happen next?" Madeline started the conversation.

"You know you could probably stay with us after this. Then you won't need to worry about those charges!" Slippy offered while he worked on a pipe.

Madeline smiled at the thought of it; no more worry, hanging with good friends, and being of use. That would be nice for a change.

"I could take it…but…" she went to a sadder mood, "what about the others? I'll end up missing Samus and Anthony. You know they're the reason I'm not in jail"

"And you're the reason we all met!" Slippy pointed out.

"Yeah, hey, uh…maybe we could use this as an opportunity to show I'm better than some criminal!"

"I thought that if they can't see it then they're blind, right?"

"I'm not sure" Krystal wasn't sure she could confess.

"Any person observant enough can see Krystal, hasn't anyone said that?" Anthony tried not to be too pushy.

Krystal thought about it for a bit.

"How about I go first? There's this particular girl I've known since she was in my platoon. She never really saw it but I found her cool, as in not having to worry about pretty little nails being broken like some other women. Before I had the chance she left the military and I never could move on" Anthony hinted.

He didn't need to say a thing for Krystal to figure. Him willing to say it aloud let her know it couldn't be bad to do so too if only Krystal would say it instead of hiding it.

"Well…I've…liked…Fox. Back when we first met I had been surprised that he would help someone he didn't know. That's why I joined. I just didn't want to find out if he felt the same like when I learn about others. I wanted to see how he was around me the same way like every other person"

Anthony pat her on the back to congratulate her. Finally he got her to stop being so shy about it.

"I waited for that! You know he'd freaked out when I hanged around you a lot because he thought I was trying to hit on you"

"Really?"

"Yeah, after this can you promise that you'll go up to him yourself?"

"Yes, someday you'll have to too"

Anthony knew that was going to come.

"Yeah, well, someday. I'll say it when I'm certain it's not a temporary thing"

"At least you got some sort of a retirement" Peppy was conversing with Adam.

"Not really, I had spent all of those months throwing gangs out of that bar"

"No wonder the paper got boring"

"Sorry for that then"

They both laughed at their sarcastic responses. Something they both wanted before anything else.

"So what will you do after this?" Peppy asked to move on to something else.

"I might end up having to be commander again. The Federation hates to let me go"

"I can see why"

"How about you Peppy?"

"I would say retirement, but I promised that before. _Fox_ hates to let me go"

"I can see that too"

Falco wasn't able to sleep like he used to. It wasn't about afterwards, he had a feeling that everyone was overacting. No he was just creeped out about Reina. How come she always acted so natural around just him?

"Are ya gonna be useful eventually?" Reina came up behind Falco who was staring out the bridge window.

"Gah! Oh-uh-n-yeah! F-"

"Never mind, we're minutes away from the finale. That means no sleepin'"

Reina walked over to the front to check on Samus.

"So you plan on bein' more of a use than Falco there?"

Samus looked back on him and noted how much he wasn't sleeping.

"He may do something this time around "

"I hopin' so. He's gets too lazy at any break time"

Even Samus had to wonder what she had to do with Falco.

"Did you guys, date, or something?"

Reina started to laugh at that. Sometimes she'd forget who she's around.

"Do ya notice somethin'? Little ring right here," Reina showed off the ring on her right hand, "married, and surely not that dumb bird"

She was married? Well maybe that meant certain people had hope if she could get there in life.

"There it is, can't wait for the fireworks" Reina pointed out a planet that looked heavily infected.

"Calling everyone to begin operation" Rob announced.

"Thanks pal, let's get ready" Reina made sure she was loud enough for Falco to hear.

He figured that getting out would mean never seeing that creepy lady again, so he ran out.

"Hey, good luck 'kay? I don't think I'll see you guys again for quite some time" Reina told Samus before she got too far away.

"Thanks, don't make yourself something for me to chase in the future"


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31: Two Queens, One Battle

All the Arwings were prepped for this final moment. Fox, Krystal, Slippy, and Falco were ready to launch when the shuttles were.

Samus was set to be alone like she always had. Adam and Anthony had to stay behind to keep undesirable guests from getting onto the _Great Fox 2_. Even though it had been quite a while since she had a mission like that, Samus was ready.

"So this is our only opportunity to do this, or so the Admiral claims. You all set?" Peppy talked to them over comms.

"Yep" everyone somehow said at the same time.

"Good luck"

And with Peppy's final sentence all the ships launched. The Arwings went first to begin the cover for the shuttles that were starting. Samus waited patiently for her turn.

"Hey, Princess, remember to come back out okay?" Anthony got on to Samus' private channel.

"No worry Anthony"

Now Samus had to go, she was going to come back fine. If she let all the worry go away then it'll be over quick.

Fox observed the little activity going on down on the planet. For something that had sounded dangerous it surely hadn't seemed so. Possibly the enemy was waiting for them to get careless.

"From some extra scans we have, the Metroid part of the forces will be stuck underground. However the Aparoids will come out" Ronald reported.

It was old news for the team. They suspected that the Metroids would never like the cold of space, no matter how much they were resistant to it.

"Take care out there" Samus sent out her message to the team.

Her gunship flew near enough to the team to see her before Samus would begin her part.

"Here they come, our battle ships will take care of the huge ones" Admiral Dane announced.

That was assuring considering the huge mass of Aparoids currently flying toward them. So this was the heavy defense.

Samus landed safely on the surface without any confrontation. Figures a smaller ship could be hard to spot at first.

"I've made it" Samus tried to report.

Nothing responded but static. If that A.I. came back she'd be able to know why.

"I'm going to the objective" Samus tried again.

Since there was no reply on that either, Samus figured the Aparoids and Metroids cut off her communication from the others. Or they wanted people like Krystal from finding out their battle plan. Smart. Though that was something she didn't want. If the enemy could easily block comms then what says they couldn't listen into them.

Worse yet, they could easily get into her suit functions. Even if the most useful of abilities were blocked already doesn't mean they couldn't get into the power or life support. Samus kept her guard up through the silent caves. The known intelligence of these creatures was too high. Mistakes would never end well here.

She made every step as slow and quiet as possible. Who knew where the enemies were, or where the hive was. Until that got figured out safety was first. But the question of the day had to be one thing; why was the enemy waiting so long to ambush Samus?

"Nearly there now" one of the shuttle pilots kept muttering over communications.

While the shuttles got the space they needed, and not much worry, Star Fox spent every second blasting away all the Aparoids threating them. There just was no space to breathe!

"Keep at it! Once we can get those soldiers deployed on the ground our focus can go back to demolishing these things!" Adam called out.

Nothing went for their ship, oddly. All the Aparoids were more freaked out about the gigantic Federation ships and shuttles. They could care less about some small Arwings that could easily be surrounded.

"Are we halfway through 'em?" Falco asked.

"No" Krystal had to say.  
"Aw come on! That's it stupid bugs! Falco's comin' to end this! When…we find the end of 'em"

The firepower of the humongous ships wasn't enough to stop the Aparoid forces coming from the planet surface. If they found the Queen like last time, maybe this is an artificial planet too…

"How's Samus' progress?" Admiral Dane asked since he couldn't reach her.

"She hasn't called, Rob assumes it's a Jammer on the surface" Lizzy took over Peppy's place to answer.

"_Maybe I shouldn't have asked myself how many there were_" Samus thought to herself as she looked around the cavern. They'd surrounded her; Metroids. Now she was going to have to find a way out with only the standard beam. Not the best of positions. Well, what could she do?

Samus barely dodged a Metroid flying straight at her. "_Only one thing,_" she figured, "_is the Morph Ball still functional?_" To her good luck it was. Samus quickly went into her Morph Ball and rolled out of the way of countless Metroids piling up at the old spot. How she wished that the speed booster worked, it could've gotten her out faster.

Even more Metroids flew in from the way she came in. By now they were all making up the wall _and_ ceiling. Not that fun. Samus tried to come up with another solution when she received a notification. "**Power Bombs Restored**", how'd that get fixed?

Like anyone would ask first during this. Samus immediately started charging up for the bomb. While it was mid-charge, one Metroid grabbed her and started draining storage energy slowing the charge down. There was nothing Samus could do but wait for the full charge no matter how long. She watched both the Power Bomb charge and the stored energy.

When the Power Bomb reached a near-full her suit's storage was empty and the Metroid was about to deplete her entirely. Samus immediately used the bomb to save the needed power and disintegrated all the Metroids. She fell onto the ground that was covered in Metroid ash all sprawled out. Hopefully that was all. Samus just wanted some time to recover from the huge loss of energy.

Someone disagreed on that. From an unknown side of the cavern something shook the ground. There was just no time for breaks.

The troops were finally on the ground and wiping out any Metroids going Samus' possible direction. Another good news was that the Aparoid force was reduced to less than eighty-seven percent of what they had been. Their Queen had to come out soon. Or now.

"Heads-up guys something big is heading over here" Peppy warned the team.

Fox looked ahead and saw a big moth-Aparoid fly toward them. How could that be it?

"Sure that's the Queen?" Slippy was uncertain.

"It has to be it, I can sense it ordering the others" Krystal sounded sure.

"Looks like we're going to have an easy time after all!" Falco went all joyous.

Fox knew fully well that it couldn't go down as quickly as they wished. Why else would it come out?

"Go for the center! This one will heal up if you shoot the eyes on its wings" Madeline made sure they all could hear.

"What have you been doing?" Adam had to wonder.

"Studying, it seems they know about your first confrontation with this variety. They didn't change the previous weak point though"

They were all glad to hear that. At least they hadn't that mistake before she said that.

"You heard, make it open wide and blast it!" Fox ordered.

All the Arwings aimed straight at the center of the moth-Aparoid and kept shooting until they burnt a hole straight through the part covering the weak point. No one got a shot into it before the pissed-off Aparoid shot a wave of energy at them all. It managed to lower all their shields.

"I've had enough of this freak!" Falco was angered enough to launch a bomb straight at the new hole.

Everyone flew away as it successfully hit the Aparoid and blew it smithereens. That was the end of that.

"The Metroid Queen's dead and the planet's falling apart! We're getting off A.S.A.P.!" one of the soldiers reported in a rush.

"Samus?" Fox asked him.

"No clue sir, I think she's still here"

That didn't sound good. That must mean…

"Everyone get back to the _Great Fox_! I'll find her quickly!" Fox gave his final order and flew off before he could get any rejections.

The Queen Metroid was no joke, it was definitely real. One after another, Samus destroyed the crystals on its back. Still it wouldn't open up. This part was going to get nasty. There was only one way to destroy it.

Samus jumped up to the Queen's mouth when it tried to bite at her and hanged onto the lip. Jumping in straight away would've gotten her chopped in half. Instead she waited for a time when it stood still to find out where she went. Samus pried the mouth wide open and quickly fell down the throat in her Morph Ball. She charged another Power Bomb then let it blow as soon as it was ready.

Finally over, it was…finally over. Samus fell to her knees. Didn't help that the stomach acid burned through most of the remaining energy. She forced herself up and walked along the path and noticed the cracks forming along the walls. Had they succeeded too? Had to be.

Samus didn't get too far when part of the ceiling cracked fully and fell on her. Was this her end?

"Samus!"


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32: Farewell, Not Goodbye

Samus woke up to find all her friends crowding around her with worried faces. What was this?

"Hey princess, I thought I said to come back okay?" Anthony seemed happy again.

"I did" Samus got up to her feet.

"Sure" Falco and Madeline went sarcastic together.

Later they'd been called aboard back on the G.F.S. Olympus for the usual "congrats" from Admiral Dane and a few Officers that lasted the assault on Norion and the previous battle.

The group of new friends wanted that part to last. Because now, they had to separate. The Olympus' hangar bay was emptied so Star Fox could head back to Lylat again. The other had to stay behind for other things.

"So…this is…it?" Slippy didn't want to leave.

"Yeah…" Madeline felt the same.

"We'll be able to talk. The Galactic Federation hopes to contact Corneria soon" Adam changed the mood.

"Yeah, so if Falco becomes a bully again I can head over and beat him!" Madeline whispered to Slippy.

"Let's leave out the violence"

"Please" Falco overheard.

"I'm stuck here until I can get a new gunship, I always seem to wreck them" Samus frowned at the idea of the next one.

"Hey you at least get a free one" Anthony pointed out.

"We didn't get a free ship like you" Peppy seemed jealous.

"Yeah, and whose fault is that?" Fox noted.

"We will have another mission together, I know it" Krystal told them.

"I hope, but I'll have to sort out a certain 'Death Certificate' before that" Adam sighed at everything he'd have to sort out.

Everyone laughed. Maybe it wasn't it. Fox knew for sure, if Lizzy was right there was something else. Looking for what would be something he couldn't do.

"Well, we have to go before someone forces us" Peppy had to break them up.

They all had to agree. Standing there wouldn't keep them together. And so Star Fox got back on their ship. Samus, Adam, Anthony, and Madeline watched them leave not knowing when they'll meet again.

"So, that was just the start?" Lizzy asked as she watched it all from the distance.

"Yep, it will get crazier from here. Let's go" Reina walked away toward the halls.

Lizzy stayed, and continued watching. She knew that this would be the last time she could know them, like a friend too. Now, she'd have no choice, but to be their enemy.


	33. Edit Update

If you managed to read through all this, I'm actually amazed. Real life has really gotten in the way of my writing progress, but soon I'll continue on the other stories. Currently I'm going through this document to make much-needed edits. Yeah...should've gone over each chapter with more care. Hopefully part two won't be so bad.

Here's to hoping I will remember to post the edited chapters...


End file.
